CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY
Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, Fifty-seventh session, 11-20 June 2014
Mr. Chair, Distinguished Delegates,
I am pleased to inform you that the 34th session of the United Nations Inter-Agency Meeting on Outer Space Activities was held from 13 to 14 May 2014 at the headquarters of the United Nations in New York. This was the first time when the Inter-Agency Meeting, the mechanism for coordination and cooperation in space-related activities among United Nations entities, was held under the name UN-Space, pursuant to the recommendation of the General Assembly contained in resolution A/RES/68/75.
Mr. Chair, Distinguished Delegates,
The report of the 34th session of UN-Space is before you in document A/AC.105/1064. I will now highlight the results of the Meeting:
Mr. Chair, Distinguished Delegates,
Following its practice of promoting dialogue among United Nations entities, Member States and other stakeholders, the eleventh open informal session was held on Wednesday, 14 May 2014 on the theme "Engaging space tools for development on Earth - contribution of space technology and applications to the post-2015 development agenda".
The concluding discussion of the open informal session attracted discussion on the conceptual question on how to define a formula for the contribution of space technology applications to the global development agenda. I would like to request member States of the Committee to continue encouraging the participation of their representatives in the open informal sessions of UN-Space.
Taking advantage of the adjacency of the Inter-Agency Meeting with the 14 th plenary meeting of the United Nations Geographic Information Working Group (UNGIWG), a joint UN-Space - UNGIWG meeting was organized in the afternoon on 14 May. The next session of UN-Space in 2015 could also be organized jointly with UNGIWG and/or the Secretariat for the United Nations Initiative on Global Geospatial Information Management (GGIM); or to be hosted by the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) in Bangkok if held in conjunction with a meeting of the Commission involving its Member States. The decision on the venue and timing will be taken in the intersessional period.
Mr. Chair, Distinguished Delegates,
This year, the report of the Secretary-General on the coordination of space-related activities within the United Nations system for the period 2014-2015, one of the flagship outputs of the Inter-Agency Meeting, was prepared in the inter-sessional period. The report addresses the post-2015 development agenda and provides an overview of current efforts by the contributing United Nations entities, including those efforts aimed at achieving environmental sustainability, inclusive social and economic development and promoting international cooperation in the peaceful uses of outer space.
An objective of the Secretary-General's report this year is also to assist the Committee in its considerations of the agenda item on space and sustainable development, and the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee in discussions on the role of space technology for socioeconomic development in the context of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development and the post-2015 development agenda. The report is before you in document A/AC.105/1063.
Mr. Chair, Distinguished Delegates,
I would like to conclude my statement by reminding delegations that the presentations made at the open informal session as well as reports and information on the current space-related activities of United Nations entities are available at the website dedicated to the coordination of outer space activities within the United Nations system ( www.uncosa.unvienna.org).
Mr. Chair, Distinguished Delegates,
Last week, the Director-General of the United Nations Office at Vienna, Mr. Yury Fedotov, in his statement has put a clear message: it is the time to make the overall governance of the peaceful uses of outer space an integral part of the international community's global commitments on sustainable development, and to demonstrate to the international community the essential role of space in development, particularly within the context of the outcome of the Rio+20 Conference and the emerging post-2015 development agenda. In this regard, the Office will do its best to ensure that UN-Space, through United Nations entities, promotes increased practical application of space technology for development and addresses the lack of awareness of space's catalytic role therein.
I thank you for your attention.