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Delivered by Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana

09 December 2022

ESCAP ES

Mr. Suttipong Juljarern, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Interior,

Dr. Wandee Khunchornyakong Juljarern, President of the Ladies Association of the Ministry of Interior,

My good friend, UN RC Ms. Gita Sabharwal,

Distinguished participants from 77 provinces, ladies and gentlemen,

A very good morning. Sa-was-dee-ka.

It is my great pleasure to welcome you to the United Nations and to deliver the welcoming remarks at the workshop with the theme of “77 Provinces, 17 SDGs - for a Sustainable Thailand.”

The workshop provides an excellent occasion for all of you to share ideas, exchange views and experiences, deliberate on the achievements of SDGs and prioritize where joint endeavors can make the most difference.

May I take this opportunity to highlight a few points for your further deliberations.

First,  for the SDGs to progress successfully, mainstreaming them into national, provincial as well as local development policies, plans and budgets, will be crucial.

You must take the leadership role and have ownership of your province, as no one size fits all 77 provinces in regard to the mainstreaming process.

Second,some SDGs are transboundary in nature and beyond provincial or even national borders.

The obvious example is transboundary water resources management. This creates social, economic and environmental interdependencies that make cooperation across borders, across provinces and even countries a precondition to  its success.

Third, the importance of a whole-of-society approach to scale up the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

It is essential to ensure that no one is left behind in our effort by involving all stakeholders, including the private sector, civil society as well as other stakeholders.

Government alone cannot successfully implement the 2030 Agenda by providing public goods and services such as health care  and education.

The other stakeholders can and should also play critical roles in delivering services beyond basics to ensure citizens’ accessibility to more advanced and alternative services and schemes.

Distinguished participants, colleagues, ladies and gentlemen,

Today, our ambitions and actions must be lifted to a higher level.

Your greatest constituencies are the stakeholders in your provinces. Engaging them in your initiatives and developing strong multi-stakeholder partnerships will be key to your success and are fundamental to the principle of ‘leaving no one behind.’  

Learning from each other and working together are the best options for finding long-lasting and multi-year solutions to address all these evelopment challenges, risks and vulnerabilities we face today.

Furthermore, as an emerging economy, Thailand is very well-placed and active in sharing best practices and approaches to the region and beyond. I,therefore, welcome you to participate in regional forums such as the Asia-Pacific Forum on Sustainable Development (APFSD) to be held in March next year in Bangkok and share your experiences as well as valuable best practise.

Since many of you are overseeing province that is urbanizing rapidly,I also would like to welcome you to various ESCAP platforms, such as the Eighth Asia-Pacific Urban Forum (APUF8), to be held in Suwon City in Korea in October next year.

In closing, not only ESCAP but we at UN stands ready to support you in realizing the many SDG initiatives in your respective provinces.

I wish you all a very successful Workshop. 

Thank you very much. Khob Khun Ka.

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