Yearender: 2016 sees new faces likely to reshape global political landscape (2)

ANTONIO GUTERRES: REFUGEE CRISIS AS PRIORITY

Antonio Guterres, former head of the UN refugee agency, topped all the six straw polls under the UN' s new selection process and won the 9th secretary general of the world body.

The consensus of the 193-member states in supporting him show that he is probably the best choice to address daunting challenges facing the world, such as the refugee crisis, a rise in unconventional security threats and trade protectionism.

The former Portuguese prime minister had been the head of the UN refugee agency UNHCR for 10 years up to 2015, and tackled some of the largest displacement crises across the world, particularly in Syria and Iraq.

Michael Williams, a former UN under secretary general, said that Guterres is "extremely well-qualified" for the post, not only because of his political savvy.

"In selecting him many members of the Security Council were not only recognizing that he had acquainted himself well in that post, but also acutely aware that migration and refugee issues are likely to continue to dominate the international agenda in the coming years," Williams wrote in an article published on the website of London-based think tank Chatham House.

Guterres has been in the thick of the Syrian refugee crisis in recent years. According to the UNHCR, over 1 million people fled to Europe in 2015 and half of them were Syrians escaping the war at home.

In an interview with Xinhua after his appointment, the secretary-general designate said he would do his best to address the conflicts worldwide, especially the one in Syria, vowing to place peace as the most pressing issue on his agenda.

"He will now be in a position not just to address the challenges of large-scale movements, but to take concrete actions to address the causes that have forced so many from their homes. It is a mighty task and expectations are high," said Elizabeth Ferris, a nonresident senior fellow in the Foreign Policy program at the U.S. think tank Brookings, in an article published on the institution' s website.

Reform is another aspect the world is looking to Guterres. While vying for the UN top job, he told the TIME magazine in a July interview that "reform is a permanent attitude and coordination a permanent must."

"We look to him to efficiently and effectively manage the Secretariat and advance much needed reforms to enhance the UN's ability to face the challenges of this century," said British Ambassador to the UN Matthew Rycroft after Guterres' appointment.

Guterres has been planning so, as he told Xinhua during a visit to China in November that the UN is excessively bureaucratic and enormous efforts are needed to simplify procedures and decentralize decisions in order to realize quick deployment and to effectively address common challenges.

"I want the UN to be a UN that is more effective, more cost-effective, but more able to deliver to the people we care for all over the world, and a UN that is a platform for dialogue, for understanding and for respect of all cultures and all religions in the world," Guterres said. Endi