We tend to associate this Century with the flowering of human genius and the explosion of human prosperity. As the 20th Century turns into the 21st that ratio has risen to at least 60 to 1. We have to do more than whistle. And this is where TCDC becomes, to me, most relevant - with an enhanced mandate. But there is a new factor which should cause us not to despair.
Globalization brings with it, for everyone, a loss of power, of control, of sovereignty even.
The North cannot wish the South away. What is required is technical collaboration in the development of collective positions of the South. Assuring the South economic space in the 21 st Century deserves and demands no less. But April is too late for the South-South technical cooperation that is required prior to the Second WTO Ministerial Meeting in Seattle this coming December. The G77 has a particularly urgent task in organising that technical work now.