CRI听力:UN Report on Millennium Development Goals

The call comes ahead of the release of a new report which reportedly shows the global economic slowdown is slowing down progress on countries' achieving their Millennium Development Goals.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says the international community must recommit to increasing aid and reaching an agreement on development-oriented multilateral trade.

"While global economies are slowly improving, the crisis continues to take a tour. For the first time in a long while, official development assistance has fallen for two consecutive years. The Doha round of multilateral trade negotiations remains at an impasse. Many more developing countries are in need of getting restructuring. Essential medicines often remain unaffordable and hard to find."

Official development assistance, or ODA, has declined by nearly 126-billion US dollars, or 4-percent, from last year.

The new UN report is suggesting the fall is mainly due to fiscal austerity being undertaken by countries in the European Union.

Ban Ki-moon says despite the economic slowdown, significant milestones have been achieved.

"As the report shows, tariffs on exports from developing countries are down, exports from developing to developed countries are up. A larger proportion of exports from least developed countries are being admitted tax free. Access to mobile phone technology and internet continued to rapidly expand. Some medicines, such as those to treat HIV Aids, are becoming more affordable."

Ban Ki-moon is calling on donor countries to continue to strive for the ODA target of 0.7 per cent of gross national income, particularly in the least developed countries.

The annual report, titled 'The Global Partnership for Development: The Challenge We Face,' has been prepared by a special UN Task Force.

The Task Force was created in 2007 to track global commitments on aid, trade and debt.

It also follows the progress on access to essential medicines and technology.

The report will be officially launched next week.

For CRI, I'm Cao Yuwei.