United Republic of Tanzania, Togo, Gambia, Ecuador, Bahamas, Mozambique, Haiti, Benin, Japan, India, Finland, Namibia, New Zealand, Portugal, Italy, Lithuania and Australia.

In addition, the representatives of the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) (on behalf of the United Nations Development Group) made statements.

The High-level Dialogue will continue at 10 a.m. tomorrow, 28 June, with a plenary meeting and six round tables.

Background

The General Assembly met this morning to begin its High-level Dialogue on Financing for Development. The overall focus of the Dialogue will be on the status of worldwide efforts to implement the Monterrey Consensus and the way forward. The two-day meeting will be built around a series of formal and informal meetingsand six interactive round-table discussions on issues that include international trade as an engine for development, and mobilizing domestic financial resources for development.

The Monterrey Consensus is the landmark agreement adopted by world leaders in Mexico at the 2002 International Conference on Financing for Development. It calls for the resources to meet the Millennium Development Goals and the conditions that will enable freer trade, more foreign investment, debt relief and efficient government. The Millennium Goals, endorsed by heads of State at the United Nations Millennium Summit in 2000, are a set of qualified targets ranging from halving extreme poverty to halting the spread of HIV/AIDS and providing universal primary education, all by 2015.

To guide their discussions, participants have before them the report of the Secretary-General entitled, “The Monterrey Consensus: