Egypt is set to chair the Group of 77 and China for year 2018 in a ceremony that will be held on Friday at the United Nations headquarters in New York.
Egyptian Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the UN Amr Aboulatta will be handed the chairmanship from the Ecuadorean ambassador, who held the position in 2017.
The Group of 77 at the United Nations is a coalition of developing nations designed to promote its members' collective economic interests and to better enable joint negotiations within the international organization.
Egyptian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ahmed Abu Zeid said that Egypt’s chairmanship comes during a critical phase in which his country is working multilaterally within the framework of the UN to implement a current perid of reform.
Egypt's election to the post serves as an opportunity to advance Egypt's diplomatic achievements made during its membership in the UN Security Council over the past year, as well as those made since its current chairmanship of the African Unions’ Peace and Security Council for the month of January 2018, the spokesman added.
As the chair of the G77, Egypt intends to promote issues pertaining to youth and development in countries with high percentages of young people, Abu Zeid said.
On Thursday, Egypt’s Ministry of Trade and Industry said that Cairo is also willing to run for the chairmanship of The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA).
The UN's Group of 77 and China was founded in 1964 and has since grown to 134 members plus China as a participant non-member.
Egypt previously chaired the group during the 1972-1973 and 1984-1985 sessions.
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