By the Mail Editorial Board WHEN Egypt assumed the presidency of the Group 77 (G77) on January 12 this year, the Foreign Ministry noted in a statement that Egypt is set to promote the developmental requirements of the group's member-states in the light of their own priorities and needs. And when President Abdel Fattah El Sisi took the floor of the group's meeting at the United Nations last week, he expressed the positions and aspirations of the developing countries of today's world, voicing their deep concerns as well as their great and justified hopes as they seek to realise socio-economic development under conditions of global economic strains and changes. An overview of the group's areas of common interest as reflected in the declarations and charters it has adopted since its establishment in 1964, especially including the most recent ones, points to marked interest improving global economic governance and ensuring the channeling of multilateral action in the direction of just and equitable developmental opportunities. In particular, this interest has given rise to an understandable aspiration for the promotion of the quality of life through widening the access to education, the provision of sufficient and efficient health services, upgrading public services, curbing poverty and the activation of fair-trade practices and the flow of investments. For these are admittedly the cornerstone of any meaningful drive to reinvigorate national economies in most of the world's developing countries. Bringing under focus in his speech to the group on September 27, a proposed approach for the aspired multilateral action within the framework of the group to achieve balanced and effective development, the Egyptian leader called for the optimisation of endeavours to benefit from emerging technologies and the prioritisation of efforts to eradicate poverty in developing countries. The importance of this call stems from the fact that G77 with its composition which has grown over the past five decades from 77 to 134 represents as much as 80 per cent of the world's overall population; hence the justified interest in intensifying their developmental efforts at the level of South-South co-operation concomitantly with inviting as much international support as possible at the level of North-South dialogue. In the case of the impact of emerging technologies on developing countries, President Sisi set forth a significant remark. Such an impact, he suggested, is two-fold, implying on the one hand large opportunities for the growth of trade, the expansion of communication and the creation of fresh job opportunities especially for young people and representing, on the other hand, serious difficulties in accessing these very technologies particularly insofar as artificial intelligence, Nano technology and biotechnology are concerned. It is a real challenge, not only for developing countries but also for the entire world community given that the continuous existence of this disparity is indicative of a gap unbridged; hence the collective responsibility of countries of the world to redress this imbalance. Since Egypt is a founding member of G77+China which now comprises 134 countries and will, as of the commencement of 2019, assume the presidency of the African Union which groups 55 countries, President Sisi's call, from the podium of G77 at the UN, for addressing that imbalance acquires considerable significance. It is worth-recalling in this connection that two weeks ahead of President Sisi's address to G77+China, Egypt, acting on behalf of the group, gave a strong statement promoting and defending Africa's vision for sustainable development as the UNGA was considering a resolution on "New Partnership for Africa's Development: Progress in Implementation and International Support." In that statement, Egypt reaffirmed the importance of international support for Africa now that countries of the continent are pressing ahead with national and continental plans to implement the African Union's Agenda 2063 which defines the priorities and measures for sustainable development through sub-plans of ten years each. The UNGA, grouping as it does the senior-most representatives of all the 193 countries of the world, was indeed a right venue for Egypt to ecxpress and defend Africa's concerns and aspirations within the larger framework of the developing world.
