Mr Chairman
Mr Executive Secretary
Honourable Ministers
Honourable Members of Parliaments
Your Excellency the Ambassador of Nepal to the United Nations
Your Excellency the Ambassador of Turkey to the United Nations
Excellencies
Representatives of Civil Society Organisations
Colleagues of the UN System
Representatives of International Organisations
Distinguished participants
Ladies and gentlemen

Let me start by congratulating you on the successful conclusion of this meeting. Your active participation and informed exchange of views have enabled us to reach what, I believe, are robust, forward-looking recommendations towards the LDC-IV Conference. I was particularly encouraged by the strong interest in the process shown not only by LDCs, but also the development partners.

I would like to give special thanks to our cluster chairpersons, moderators, presenters and panelists, as well as our rapporteurs for a job well done.
In particular, I would like congratulate and thank the chair of this Africa Regional Preparatory Meeting for the Fourth United Nations Conference on the LDCs, the Honourable Marcus S. G. Dahn, Minister of Planning and Economic Affairs of Liberia, for steering the meeting and leading the drafting and consultations on the outcome document.

Allow me also to give special thanks to our host, the Executive-Secretary of ECA, Mr Abdoulie Janneh, for facilitating this meeting and finding the time in his busy schedule to participate in person. This, no doubt, reflects his commitment to the cause of African LDCs, and African countries in general.

Over these two days, we have heard from different stakeholders, ranging from government executives to parliamentarians, international organisations to civil society, on the challenges that confront African LDCs and LDCs in general.
We have heard some innovative approaches that have been undertaken by a number of LDCs to address these challenges with varying degrees of success. Not only are these ideas an important contribution to the LDC-IV process, but they can also be integrated in our development work more immediately.

Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,
The successful conclusion of this meeting is an important milestone on the road to Istanbul. The regional perspectives generated from this meeting and the Asian Review Meeting will form the primary basis for the negotiations towards Istanbul. Now that we have these two very important inputs, on top of the country reports you prepared, my Office, in collaboration with UN System and other international organisations, will embark on organising a series of thematic pre-conference events to dig deep into the issues and priorities you have identified.

In collaboration with our civil society partners and the host government, we shall, in the near future, launch the civil society steering committee and establish a civil society secretariat to steer the important contributions of civil society organizations to the process and, ultimately, to the LDC-IV Conference.

With these inputs, we shall convene the first of two Preparatory Committee Meetings at the United Nations in New York in January 2011. The committee will translate these ideas into a draft outcome document for negotiation and adoption in Istanbul. I very much look forward to seeing you in New York for the Preparatory Meeting. I appeal to you to remain fully engaged in the LDC-IV process to advocate for and defend the priorities you have identified.

Allow me, as I conclude, to once again appreciate the tireless efforts of our colleagues at the Economic Commission for Africa in ensuring the success of this meeting. Let me also express my deep appreciation to our co-organisers, UNDP and the Economic Commision for Africa for their contributions.

Finally, I thank you all for your patience, active participation and insightful contributions. I trust that you found the meeting as fruitful as I did. I wish you a safe journey back to your respective homes and I look forward to seeing you again as we continue our preparations for the Fourth United Nations Conference on the LDC in Istanbul in 2011.

Thank you for your kind attention.