to facilitate development. However, the cost of building infrastructure was very high, and most poor countries could not afford it. There was a need to seriously consider the setting up of a dedicated pool of international financing for the development of infrastructure in developing countries. Also, he noted that South-South cooperation had become an effective approach in strengthening partnership. His country was prepared to share its experiences in development and poverty eradication.

He hoped that developed countries would coordinate their economic policies so that the benefits of growth would trickle down to the developing countries. Today’s dialogue should renew the resolve to achieve the Millennium Goals, eradicate poverty and bring prosperity to all.

BERHANE ABREHE, Minister of Finance of Eritrea, said the financial resources needed to achieve the Millennium Goalswere beyond the reach of most low-income and least developed countries. Their social, economic and physical infrastructures were at such low levels that they constrained the productive capacity of human resources, and limited trade and regional integration. Many sub-Saharan nations were in, or just coming out of, ruinous conflict.

He said Eritrea was projected to achieve most of the millennium targets by 2015, although that was no cause for real celebration. First, the country was off track in two crucial areas –- eradication of extreme poverty and achievement of universal primary education. Second, the Goals represented only the minimum benchmarks, rather than the culmination, of full development. Third, Eritrea’s road map to 2015 was prepared under certain assumptions, including the resolution of the “no-war no-peace” situation, the absence of