Secretary-General of UNCTAD
[ Biographical note of Mr. Ricupero] [ Summary of Contents ] [ UNCTAD IX home page]
In submitting this report, I would ask the readers to regard it as one stage in a process of reflection which began in the UNCTAD secretariat before I took office as Secretary-General and which I have joined and steered since then. It therefore embodies our current state of thinking, and that thinking - particularly as it concerns the future work of the organization - is preliminary and tentative.
The report is thus a working document, offered as a contribution to an ongoing dialogue. I welcome comments and inputs - including critical ones - from governments, multilateral institutions, universities, the private sector and non-governmental organizations.
I believe such an open and dynamic approach is the most appropriate, and perhaps efficacious, way of coming to grips with a rapidly and constantly changing world political and economic scene.
I should also like to point out that initially this foreword was to have included my personal reflections on some of the issues I regard as crucial in defining UNCTAD's work as we approach a new millennium. However, as I completed work on the foreword, it became apparent that these personal reflections could make a contribution to the consideration by governments of the issues raised by item 8 (d ) of the provisional agenda of UNCTAD IX, namely Future work of UNCTAD in accordance with its mandate; institutional implications. I have therefore included them in chapter IV of the report.