Brunei, 2000

Mr. President, I should like to offer you my

congratulations on your election and my best wishes

for the coming year, and also to convey my great

appreciation to your predecessor, Mr. Theo-Ben

Gurirab, for his fine work and guidance over the past

year.

I would like to start by thanking our Secretary-

General for his report to the Millennium Summit. It is

comprehensive, ethical and most impressive. We have

never had anything like it before. One effect it has had

is to give deep meaning to the expression the

international community. I think that in the past, we

have often used this term far too lightly. Now we know

what it stands for. It is spelled out in the final

Declaration made by our heads of Government, which

is now a textbook for the coming year. Its great ideas

still echo in this Hall, and its noble aims light up the

future.

In our view, it has given precise targets that can

truly help developing nations. For the first time, we can

distinguish clearly between immediate issues and long-

term ones. This is very important, because many of the

things on which we spend so much time and so many

resources are not, in fact, today's issues. They are sad

legacies passed on by the twentieth century.

Obviously, they are important. Each one is tragic

in the consequences it has for ordinary peoples' lives.

But they are all primarily the responsibility of

Governments and regional organizations. The more

they dominate the affairs of the United Nations, the

more they stop us from concentrating on the deep-

seated problems of developing nations. Those problems

are the ones that can truly be called today's issues. As

the Secretary-General highlighted in his Summit report,

they are becoming very serious indeed. We have even

had to give them a new name: transnational issues.

They each have academic titles: technological

problems; demographic problems; socio-economic

problems; and environmental problems. But take away

the grand language, and they all add up to a simple

fact: they are far too big for individual Governments to

deal with, or even regional organizations.

It is all too clear that they will not be solved in

the marketplace, either. The solutions will not trickle

down. In fact, the global market economy has

lengthened their list and created its own set of special

problems.

It would all be very depressing indeed but for one

thing. The Summit Declaration has clearly invited us

all, as Members of the United Nations, to accept a joint

international responsibility to find solutions. Naturally,

we may differ on how to go about it, but what is most

important is that we have to recognize and accept the

need for new priorities. Consequently, we highly value

the assessment made by the Secretary-General of

where these lie.

For example, we appreciate his timely advice that

globalization requires policies and measures that are

sensitive to the needs of developing nations. We are

pleased that he has upheld the peoples' right to

development as fundamental. We join him in

recognizing the special concern of our friends and

colleagues on the African continent. We support all that

he is trying to do to improve the efficiency and

effectiveness of the United Nations, because this

should enable it to concentrate on what it does best and

is best equipped to do.

By this I mean the practical, urgent work done by

its organs and agencies and its professionals and

volunteers, in the field, close to the people. Much of

this represents development in areas such as education

and training, which are absolutely critical if the people

of developing nations are to move beyond a day-to-day

struggle for basic food, shelter and medicine and take

part successfully in the new global economy.

It means that the work of agencies such as the

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural

Organization (UNESCO), the United Nations

Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health

Organization (WHO) is vital. It needs to proceed

urgently and not be held back because essential funds

are diverted to solving ancient problems.

The vital tasks of the United Nations today

should not be held hostage by the twentieth century. It

has urgent new work to undertake for developing

nations. This work can be simply summed up. It is to

ensure that the phrase developing nations actually

does mean nations that are developing rather than

what they too often tend to be, just a polite expression

for the very opposite.

The Summit Declaration offers us all the chance

to do just this, in friendship and cooperation, and I

hope that we will do everything we can to implement

its provisions. It would be the best form of appreciation

we could offer to the Secretary-General and his staff at

the end of a remarkable year's work.