ST. JOHN’S, Antigua – Antigua and Barbuda’s Prime Minister the Honourable Baldwin Spencer on Monday, April 28 received an award of excellence for his stewardship of the Group of 77 and China. The award was presented Monday, April 28 to the Prime Minister by Mr. Mourad Ahmia, Executive Secretary of the Group 77 at the United Nations.
The Prime Minister is the first ever recipient of this award in the forty-four year history of the Group of 77, and is being presented to him “in recognition of his able leadership and outstanding contribution in advancing South-South solidarity and safeguarding the collective interests of the Developing World.”
“I was pleased but humbled when I was told that not only was I to be given this award but that I was the first Ministerial Chairman to receive it,” said the Prime Minister.
“Prime Minister Spencer has shown throughout his country’s chairmanship that he is a champion of the interests of the developing countries and both an ardent supporter and promoter of South-South Cooperation between and among the countries of the southern hemisphere. He is therefore fully deserving of this award,’ said Ahmia.
The award, which is in the form of plaque, is formally known as the Excellence Leadership Award, and is being presented on the occasion of the meeting of the G-77 High Level Panel of Eminent Personalities on the Development Platform for the South, which is being held at the Jolly Beach Resort on April 29-30.
PM Spencer receiving the Award from the Executive Secretary of the G77 and China Mr. Mourad Ahmia.
The Group of 77 (G-77) was established on 15 June 1964 by seventy-seven developing countries signatories of the “Joint Declaration of the Seventy-Seven Countries” issued at the end of the first session of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in Geneva. Beginning with the first “Ministerial Meeting of the Group of 77 in Algiers (Algeria) on October 10-25 1967, which adopted the Charter of Algiers”, a permanent institutional structure gradually developed which led to the creation of Chapters of the Group of 77 with Liaison offices in Geneva (UNCTAD), Nairobi (UNEP), Paris (UNESCO), Rome (FAO/IFAD), Vienna (UNIDO), and the Group of 24 (G-24) in Washington, D.C. (IMF and World Bank). Although the members of the G-77 have increased to 130 countries, the original name was retained because of its historic significance.
The Group of 77 is the largest intergovernmental organization of developing states in the United Nations, which provides the means for the countries of the South to articulate and promote their collective economic interests and enhance their joint negotiating capacity on all major international economic issues within the United Nations system, and promote South-South cooperation for development.
