Ministry Statements & Speeches:
Thank you, Co-Chair.
I would like to join others in thanking you, the Bureau and Group of Experts for the significant amount of hard work undertaken since September.
We are pleased to see that the first round of regional workshops has been successfully completed. We thought the South Pacific workshop, held in Auckland in October 2017, went well and generated a productive discussion. It was useful to have broad participation from across the region and beyond. We look forward to hearing more about the other workshops during the discussion later today.
We would like to thank the Group of Experts for preparing the Draft Outline of World Ocean Assessment 2 and the Timetable and Implementation Plan. These are important steps in the second cycle. We see that these documents have been informed both by the discussion during the last meeting of the Ad-hoc Working Group of the Whole and during the workshops. We have some more specific comments on the Draft Outline that we will share later today.
We think that it is useful to have the completed Guidance for Contributors, with many of the lessons learned from the first cycle incorporated. We would again reiterate the need to avoid duplication within and between chapters of the assessment.
We look forward to the capacity building dialogue and partnership event planned for 2019. To make it as useful as possible, it will be important to clarify its scope and objectives, as well as to identify priorities with regard to gaps and capacity needs. We would encourage consideration of financial assistance, perhaps through the trust fund, for capital-based experts from developing countries to participate in the event.
Finally, we would like to thank the Co-Chair for the update on the numbers of the National Focal Points and the process for the establishment of the Pool of Experts. As the Under-Secretary-General mentioned, we would encourage the designation of further National Focal Points and experts for the Pool of Experts. Their work will be essential to the success of the second cycle.
Thank you.