ST. PETERSBURG, June 1. /TASS/. The global community needs to reform the United Nations in order to make it more effective, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said at the opening ceremony of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum on Thursday.

"It is absolutely essential to have the capacity to respond, and there is a huge responsibility of the United Nations," he said. "We need to reform the UN, (making it) much more effective, much more cost-effective and much more linked to the needs of the people" Guterres added.

"That is why I am so engaged both in the reform of the peace and security sector, the UN development system and our internal management processes in order to allow the UN to be more able to prevent conflicts and to help in solving the conflicts that exist… but especially in promoting the kind of solutions we need for the globalization to be more fair," the secretary general added.

Besides, Guterres called on the countries to encourage business circles to respond to those challenges.

According to him, it is particularly important "that the people feel that governments and international organizations care for them" and "that trust can be reestablished as a key tool in order to be able for us to face the challenges of today."

The 2017 the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum is taking place in Russia’s second largest city on June 1-3. The forum is dubbed Achieving a New Balance in the Global Economic Arena.

TASS news agency is the general information partner and the official photohost agency of the event. The agency is also the operator of the forum’s presentation zone.