He urged national delegations to negotiate a strong text to guide UNCTAD XII and its outcome. Mr. Supachai, addressing a special session of the Trade and Development Board (TDB), said that next month´s UNCTAD XII conference comes "at a time when the world is in a period of uncertainty, with credible fears of recession". He urged national delegations to negotiate a strong text to guide UNCTAD XII and its outcome.

I am confident that all of the sticking points in the ongoing negotiations will be overcome, and that Accra will be a success. Supachai Panitchpakdi, Special session of the TDB, 17 March 2008

The Ghanaian Ambassador to the United Nations Office at Geneva, Mr. Kwabena Baah Duodu, reviewed logistics for UNCTAD XII and called for faster and more substantive progress in achieving a negotiated text. Progress so far has been "slow", he said. Since the negotiations began about three months ago, some 45 paragraphs of the draft text have been cleared, while about 230 remain to be agreed upon.

Mr. Supachai called for urgent progress and urged "flexibility and more flexibility" during ongoing drafting sessions so that a final version will be ready in time for the April conference.

Some of the challenges to be addressed at UNCTAD XII:

• Lagging African development
• Difficulties in halving extreme poverty, as called for by the United Nations Millennium Development Goals
• Rising oil prices, which "could offset any benefits that African developing countries are reaping from debt relief initiatives"

Also on the agenda:

• Enhancing growing trade between developing countries ("South-South" trade)
• Helping to reach a positive conclusion to the long-running Doha Round of multilateral trade talks conducted by the World Trade Organization (WTO)
• Strengthening the work of UNCTAD