Guyana to chair UN second committee on economics

Guyana will serve as chair of the Economic and Financial Committee (second committee) of the United Nations General Assembly for the 67th session, the Foreign Affairs Ministry said in a release.
The UN Assembly on Tuesday elected Guyana’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador George Talbot, by acclamation to the post.
Ambassador Talbot is the first representative of a Caricom member state at the United Nations to hold the position.
The second committee, which deals with a wide range of development matters, will have a full agenda of issues to consider, among them macro-economic policy questions, sustainable development issues, including follow-up to the Rio+20 conference, challenges associated with poverty eradication, globalisation, international migration and development, and the situation of countries in special circumstances such as least developed countries, landlocked developing countries, and small island developing states.
Guyana’s priorities for the upcoming session will include a focus on food security and agriculture, poverty eradication, climate change related issues and the developmental impact of inequalities, both within and across countries as well as on greater effectiveness and efficiency in the conduct of the work of the committee.
During Guyana’s tenure, the committee will also undertake the first quadrennial comprehensive policy review of the UN’s operational activities for development.
Ambassador Talbot was nominated and endorsed for the post by Caricom and by the Group of the Latin American and Caribbean States (GRULAC). Italy, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Bangladesh were also elected to the bureau of the committee. Ambassador Talbot, who holds a bachelor’s degree in modern languages from the University of Guyana and a master’s degree in international relations from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, is a career diplomat with vast experience in multilateral affairs.
In a related development, Ambassador of Suriname to the UN, Henry Mac Donald, was also on Tuesday elected to chair the third committee, making this the first time that two Caricom representatives will chair main committees of the General Assembly during the same session.