The current crisis speaks volumes about the need for multilateral monitoring and intermediation in both the trade and financial arenas, since they are closely intertwined. Simply put, global stability and security require global action.

UNCTAD has been addressing these and other persistent problems for more than40 years, working to advance development through trade and investment. But as current difficulties show, there are new realities to contend with. The world has been profoundly altered - economically, socially, politically, and even, because of climate change, physically. There has, certainly, been much progress. Some developing countries have benefited greatly from the recent commodity boom, for example. Many developing countries are now net exporters of capital, and South-South trade and investment have virtually exploded, transforming the nature of international economic relations. The new generation of globalization has resulted in a better distribution of the benefits: Real GDP per capita in developing countries overall increased from $812 in 1980 to$1,621 in 2006, and poverty has been substantially reduced, especially in Asia. Even in Africa, average GDP growth last year, excluding Nigeria and South Africa, is estimated at 7%. There is reason to hope that the Millennium Development Goals will, in some quarters at least, be achieved by 2015.