9 May 2011

TURKEY / LDC OPENER WRAP

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today (9 May) encouraged leaders of the world’s poorest countries meeting in Turkey to agree on a common position and send a strong political message to the rest of the world on the importance of investing in the least developed countries to eradicate global poverty. UNTV

Posted at: May 9, 2011 12:39 pm

Duration: 02:48

Available in: SD

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Full script

STORY: TURKEY / LDC OPENER WRAP
TRT: 2.48
SOURCE: UNTV
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
 
DATELINE: 9 MAY 2011, ISTANBUL, TURKEY
 
SHOTLIST:
 
1.	Pan right, view of Istanbul and the Bosporus River
2.	Wide shot, conference venue
3.	Wide shot, Plenary Ban Ki-moon and Abdullah Gül entering Conference Room and sitting down
4.	Med shot, audience
5.	Zoom in, table with Ban Ki-moon, Abdullah Gül and Joseph Deiss
6.	SOUNDBITE (English) Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General, United Nations:
"Eight of the UN's fifteen peacekeeping operations are in Least Developed Countries. In the past decade those nations have produced some 60 percent of the world's refugees. The facts are plain. We live in an unbalanced world, an unfair world. With a 12 percent of the global population, LDCs account for just 1 percent of world's exports, and less than 2 percent of global direct investment. Recent years have seen a transformation of the global economic landscape. Since 2001 Brussels Program of Action was adopted, many LDCs have benefited from this changing environment, but others have seen little progress or have even slid back."
7.	Wide shot, audience at plenary conference room applauding
8.	Wide shot, Ban Ki-moon and Abdullah Gül enter Press Conference room
9.	Pan left, reporters
10.	SOUNDBITE (Turkish) Abdullah Gül, President, Turkey: 
"As we look at the big picture since 1971 unfortunately developments aren't good. While in 1971 twenty five countries were among the Least Developed Countries the number of countries has not decreased, instead the number has increased to forty eight. Today in forty eight countries populations, about 1 billion people are living with less than 1.25 dollars a day. Only three countries have graduated from the LDCs group."
11.	Pan left, reporters
12.	SOUNDBITE (English) Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General, United Nations:
"If we do not success for the LDCs we will not be able to achieve the target of MDG goals by 2015. Therefore we must be successful; we must have a very ambitious target for this Istanbul Conference." 
13.	Wide shot, Ban leaves PC
  
STORYLINE:

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today (9 May) encouraged leaders of the world's poorest countries meeting in Turkey to agree on a common position and send a strong political message to the rest of the world on the importance of investing in the least developed countries to eradicate global poverty.

The Secretary-General said that "the facts are plain. We live in an unbalanced world, an unfair world", while noting that eight of the UN's fifteen peacekeeping operations were in Least Developed Countries (LDCs), and that in the past decade those nations had produced some 60 percent of the world's refugees.
 
The IV United Nations Least Developed Countries Conference in Istanbul will assess the implementation of the Brussels Program of Action - the outcome document adopted at the 2001 LDC Conference and aims to reach agreement on the newest of support measures for the 48 nations classified as LDCs.
 
Ban Ki-moon told heads of state and government, ministers and delegates present at the opening ceremony of the conference that "recent years have seen a transformation of the global economic landscape" and since the 2001 Brussels Program of Action was adopted, "many LDCs have benefited from this environment, but others have seen little progress or have even slid back."

The Least Developed Countries in the world include thirty three nations in Africa, fourteen in Asia and one, Haiti, in the Americas.
 
At a joint press conference with the Secretary-General, Turkey's President Abdullah Gül who is chairing the conference said that looking at the big picture "since 1971 unfortunately developments aren't good." He noted that while in 1971 twenty five countries were among the Least Developed Countries the number of countries had not decreased, instead the number has increased to 48." 
 
He added that today in those countries "about 1 billion people are living with less than 1.25 dollars a day" and only three had graduated from the LDCs group. To date those countries are Botswana which graduated in 1994, Cape Verde in 2007 and Maldives on 1 January 2011.
 
Closing the press conference, Ban Ki-moon stressed that if success was not achieved for the LDCs, we would not be able to achieve the target of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015, adding that, "we must be successful, we must have a very ambitious target in this Istanbul Conference."
 
Two papers, a political declaration and an action plan are expected to be adopted at the end of the conference in order to pave the way for a road map for activities of the next decade.