UN Secretary-General-Designate Ban Ki-moon said Friday that restoring trust among member states and the reform of the UN administration would be among the top priority of his new job.

In an interview with reporters from some Asian media organizations, Ban said that broadly speaking, his main priority will be on two aspects: the reform of Secretariat management, and the engagement of negotiations and dialogues with concerned parties in the conflict areas, and with major member states.

The Secretary-General-Designate said he would try to restore trust among member states, seeking to act as harmonizer and bridge-builder, though he is fully aware that trust-building would be a difficult process.

But he said he is confident that he can contribute to bridging the gap among member states and between member states and the Secretariat, promising to be "a good listener rather than a good speaker," who is constantly engaged in dialogues and listening attentively to the problems and wishes of each and every member state.

To make that possible, it would require that staff of the management to be more professional, accountable and transparent in their work, he noted.

Ban said he would do his utmost to strive for the rebirth of the Secretariat by setting an example himself and by requiring its staff to be more mobile and multifunctional.

"As Secretary-General, I'll try to enhance a sense of strong mission and commitment for the Secretariat staff so that they can provide more efficient and better service to the member states," he said. "By doing this, I think we can gain the trust of member states, and major stakeholders."

On relations between the UN and its member states, especially big powers such as the United States, Ban said the United States is one of the most important UN members in terms of its political influence in the international community and financial contribution to the UN budget.

The United Nations needs the active participation and strong support of the United States, but at the same time, he is convinced that the United States also believes it needs the United Nations. Therefore, he stressed that the effective and close cooperation between the two are crucially important.

Ban said he would do his best to harmonize such relationship despite the fact that sometimes the interests of the two are not the same. Even on those occasions, UN member states and the United States have tried to reconcile their differences, he noted.

Ban said he believes that among peace and security, development and human rights, the three pillars of the United Nations, development is the key to all the issues.

"Without development, without ensuring harmonious prosperity, you cannot expect peace and security, or the protection of human rights. Therefore, I'm going to pay more attention to the development issues," Ban said.

Ban said that after he was officially sworn in on Thursday, he has been considering more seriously than before taking over his duty as the UN Secretary-General on January 1, and he will use the remaining days to prepare, first of all, the review of senior personnel and some reform plans, and contribute to the resolutions of some regional plans.

Source: Xinhua