Mexico hosts global development forum

Mexico's President Enrique Pena Nieto Tuesday opened the first High-Level Meeting of the Global Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation, attended by some 1,500 international leaders, including United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

At the opening of the two-day event in Mexico City, Pena Nieto said, "Mexico, as host country of this first meeting, seeks to promote dialogue and the building of accords between different government and non-governmental agencies to strengthen and promote efficient cooperation for development."

Ban also addressed the gathering, urging the international community to earmark more national resources and financing to cut poverty and reach the UN-sponsored Millennium Development Goals ( MDGs) by the preset deadline, 2015.

"It is necessary to mobilize resources from all sources: national, international, private and public, to more effectively reduce poverty and reach the Millennium Development Goals," said Ban.

"Critically, we must ensure the financing to match our ambitions," he added.

The UN describes the goals, adopted in 2000 by the leaders of 189 nations attending the Millennium Summit in New York, as "the world's blueprint for tackling poverty, hunger and disease, expanding education and opportunity, and providing a cleaner, greener future."

Concretely, the goals call for eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, providing free primary education to all, promoting gender equality, reducing infant mortality, improving maternal health and creating a global partnership for development.

"As the 2015 deadline draws near, all of us must do more to deliver on our commitments," Ban said.

Ban also noted that South-South cooperation has led to impressive growth.

The meeting brought together heads of state and government, ministers, legislators and representatives of the business sector and civil society.