Excellencies, Dear Colleagues,

I thank the organizers for holding this important side event. I also appreciate Kyrgyzstan for its leadership in international cooperation on sustainable mountain development. China actively supported and co-sponsored the GA resolution on International Year of Sustainable Mountain Development proposed by Kyrgyzstan.

At present, the international community, especially developing countries, are encountering severe multiple challenges in implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Mountain regions are rich in natural resources, but are usually poverty-prone, and face challenges such as access to food, drinking water and health care services, due to the geographic terrain and poor transport conditions. Mountainous areas are also vulnerable to climate change and biodiversity loss. The international community needs to raise the awareness of protecting mountain regions, and step up concrete actions to promote the sustainable development of mountain regions, leaving no one behind.

China's mountain area accounts for two-thirds of its national land area. We uphold the development philosophy of lucid water and lush mountains are invaluable assets, and take targeted measures to eradicate poverty in mountain regions, develop mountain farming and mountain tourism according to local conditions. We systematically advance environmental protection, economic development, job creation, poverty eradication and other endeavors, translating ecological strength of mountain areas into development strength.

As President of COP15 of CBD, China has been working closely with all parties to produce the historic outcome, namely, the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. We will continue to cooperate with different partners to promote sustainable development of mountain regions, so as to accelerate the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and jointly build a community of all life on earth.

Thank you.