Assistant Secretary-General Mr. Hanif,

Excellencies, colleagues,

Happy New Year to you all! Thank you for attending the first policy dialogue meeting between the Group of Friends of the GDI and the UN Task Force on Leveraging Partnerships towards the Implementation of the 2030 Agenda. I welcome Ms. Lu Mei, Deputy-Director-General of the Department of International Economic Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China, and Ms. Tang Ying, Director-General of the Global Development Promotion Center of China International Development Cooperation Agency, who came all the way from Beijing to join us here.

The world we are living today is marked by changes and turbulence, along with intensified geopolitical tensions and multidimensional crisis. The 2030 Agenda has only five years to go, but only 17% of the goals are on track. As stressed by the Pact for the Future, to address these challenges, we need strong and sustained international cooperation guided by trust and solidarity for the benefit of all. This year marks the 80th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations and the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development. The international community should take this opportunity to implement the consensus reached at the Summit of the Future and blaze “a path to a brighter future”.

Over the past three years, with our joint efforts, the GDI has evolved from a Chinese proposal to an international consensus, and has been translated from vision into action, benefiting a large number of developing countries. We look forward to a close cooperation between the Group and the Task Force to seize opportunities, overcome difficulties, and further support the common development of all countries and the implementation of the 2030 Agenda. I would like to emphasize three points.

First, we must resolutely uphold multilateralism. We should work together to practice multilateralism and support the central and coordinating role of the UN in international development cooperation. We should stand shoulder to shoulder in opposing unilateralism, protectionism, and de-globalization. And we should join hands in promoting inclusive globalization for shared prosperity, and ensuring that no one and no country is left behind.

Second, we must firmly push forward the development agenda. Facing various difficulties and challenges, we must persevere and redouble our efforts to achieve the 2030 Agenda. We need to mobilize more resources and encourage the international community to address the urgent needs of developing countries such as poverty eradication, food security, financing for development, and climate actions, and provide them with more tailor-made support.

Third, we must continuously build partnerships. As an inclusive initiative, the GDI is open to Member States, UN agencies, and non-governmental organizations. We encourage members of the Task Force to leverage their respective strengths, actively participate in practical cooperation under the GDI framework to strengthen policy dialogue, best practice sharing, and project cooperation with members of the Group of Friends. The two sides should take today's meeting as a starting point to institutionalize our cooperation and identify some priority areas, and from there explore innovative approaches to achieve greater complementarity and synergy.

I look forward to the upcoming discussions and valuable inputs around the table on the key areas and future direction of our cooperation, so as to further align the GDI with the UN development agenda, and boost the implementation of the 2030 Agenda.

Thank you.

Closing Remarks by Ambassador Geng Shuang at the Policy Dialogue Meeting

I thank everyone for a very lively discussion and their remarks, inputs and contributions which provide lots of ideas and suggestions on how to strengthen the cooperation between the Group of Friends and the Task Force, and how to accelerate the implementation of the 2030 Agenda. My takeaways could be summarized by three keywords:

First is partnership. The Group of Friends and the Task Force have common aspirations, common goals, and respective strengths and advantages, making us natural partners in helping developing countries implement the 2030 Agenda. We have every reason to complement and reinforce each other’s work and build up our partnership for mutual benefits.

Second is confidence. We are very much encouraged by all the valuable insights and proposals on the key areas of cooperation, the next step forward, and some initial consensus that has been reached. We are fully confident that our cooperation could be really meaningful and fruitful.

Third is action. After charting the course forward, the key is to follow through. We should take today's meeting as a starting point, and be action-oriented and result-oriented. We need to further materialize and institutionalize our cooperation, strive for early harvests, and make tangible contributions to the implementation of the SDGs.

Dear Colleagues, 

I thank you once again for attending today’s meeting. As the Spring Festival is around the corner, I wish you all the best in the upcoming Year of the Snake, and I look forward to seeing you again at our next meeting. 

Thank you.