来源地址：第四届联合国最不发达国家会议秘书长潘基文开幕式讲话(2011年)http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2011/sgsm13554.doc.htm

　　There are few better places to hold the first major development conference of the decade. Here in Istanbul, cultures converge and continents connect. You provide a bridge between North and South, East and West. We are here to continue building a bridge, a bridge we started to build four decades ago.

　　In 1971, the international community identified 25 Least Developed Countries: the poorest and weakest members of our global family, those in need of special attention and assistance. Today there are 48 LDCs, home to nearly 900 million people, 12 per cent of the global population, half of whom live on less than $2 a day.

　　They suffer disproportionately from largely preventable diseases. They are most vulnerable to natural disasters, environmental change and economic shocks. They are the least secure. Eight of the United Nations 15 peacekeeping operations are in least developed countries. In the past decade those nations have produced some 60 per cent of the world’s refugees.

　　The facts are plain. We live in an unbalanced world, an unfair world. With 12 per cent of the global population, LDCs account for just 1 per cent of world exports, and less than 2 per cent of global direct investment. Recent years have seen a transformation of the global economic landscape.

　　Since the 2001 Brussels Programme of Action was adopted, many LDCs have benefited from this changing environment. But others have seen little progress or have even slid back. We risk a splintered world economy, a widening gap between haves and have-nots, between those who have hope and those who do not.

　　This cannot continue.

　　I have painted rather a bleak picture. But there is another one, a landscape of opportunity. It is this outlook that I want to present to you today. It is time to change our mindset. Instead of seeing LDCs as poor and weak, let us recognize these 48 countries as vast reservoirs of untapped potential. Investing in LDCs is an opportunity for all.

　　First it is an opportunity to relieve the world’s most vulnerable people of the burdens of poverty, hunger and needless disease. This is a moral obligation. Second, investing in LDCs can provide the stimulus that will help to propel and sustain global economic recovery and stability. This is not charity, it is smart investment. Third, it provides a massive opportunity for South-South cooperation and investment. The world’s rapidly emerging economies need both resources and markets. LDCs can provide both — and are increasingly doing so. Fourth, the LDCs represent a vast and barely touched area for enterprise, for business.

　　We have here, this week, all the ingredients for success, for a genuine partnership for development. You have worked hard in your preparations. You have reviewed the impact of the Brussels Programme of Action. You know what worked, and what did not, what should have been done and what still needs to be done.