Exclusive: At UNGA, Free Zones Stay Off the Official Calendar

FTZ News: The 81st General Assembly is in high-level week. The published programme has no meeting on free zones or special economic zones.

According to the United Nations high-level week schedule, the general debate runs Sept. 22–26 in the Assembly Hall, with a further sitting on Sept. 28. Khalilur Rahman of Bangladesh presides. The theme is “Restoring trust, managing transformation: A United Nations that delivers for all.” On Sept. 23 the Secretary-General convenes a climate and just-transition session in the Trusteeship Council Chamber from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. The same day the Assembly marks 40 years of the Declaration on the Right to Development. Later sittings cover sea-level rise, pandemic preparedness, the Durban declaration and nuclear weapons.

UNCTAD keeps a zone file the rest of the year. It belongs to the Global Alliance of Special Economic Zones and sent speakers to the World Free Zones Organization congress in May. Pedro Manuel Moreno, the acting secretary-general, was in China in early September on investment and industry. Under Assembly resolution 80/127, UNCTAD is to brief this session in a section of the World Investment Report.

Operators have still booked rooms in New York. Sheikh Mohammed bin Hamad bin Faisal Al-Thani, chief executive of Qatar Free Zones Authority, attended the Qatar Economic Forum’s UNGA special edition, a Bloomberg gathering held here before the debate opened. QFZ shared a lounge with Invest Qatar and the Qatar Financial Centre.

UNCTAD’s 2019 World Investment Report put the number of special economic zones worldwide at close to 5,400. Estimates circulated by the World Free Zones Organization, and repeated in later trade notes, say about 20 percent of world merchandise trade moves through free zones and SEZs.

Kenya’s published meetings this week run to investment and a refinery. Indonesia’s foreign minister is here on peace, UN reform and the Global South./.