BD wants rules-based global trading system: FM

Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen told  world leaders, "Bangladesh wants a rules-based global trading system".

Speaking at a roundtable discussion as part of the two-day SDG Summit at the UN Headquarters on Monday, he highlighted "Bangladesh's concerted efforts to implement the SDGs claiming that the country has made famines a matter of the past."

"We laid emphasis on imposing minimum conditions for concessional loans and life-saving technology to implement the SDGs," Dr Momen said.
Bangladesh reduced poverty to 5.6 per cent in 2022, from 25.1 percent in 2006, he said.

"But there're huge gaps in the global partnership to implement the SDGs. We want the implementation of commitments under the Doha Programme of Action for LDCs," Dr Momen said.

Dr Momen  pointed out, "there are huge gaps in global partnership to implement the SDGs" and called for commitments under the Doha Programme of Action for LDCs be kept.

The Doha Programme of Action outlines a ten-year plan to tap into the potential of the LDCs by implementing renewed and strengthened commitments between the LDCs and their development partners, including the private sector, civil society, and governments at all levels.

"We're continuing our efforts to implement the Sustainable Development Goals or SDGs. Bangladesh is working to achieve the goals with the participation of all or the 'whole-of-society'," he  said.

Describing the SDGs as "the Magna Carta" of the present time, he said Bangladesh has made sustained  efforts to reduce poverty and hunger. "We have made famines a matter of the past,"

"We believe that there needs to be sufficient incentives for the private sector so that it comes forward alongside the public sector to implement the SDGs," he said, speaking on behalf of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

The world leaders deplored that progress on most of SDG targets is moving much too slowly and warned of the perils the world faces unless it acts with urgency to rescue a set of 2030 development goals to eliminate hunger and extreme poverty and to tackle climate change.

They adopted a political declaration to accelerate action on implementing the 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

The adoption of the 10-page document, by the Heads of State and Government and high representatives who gathered at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, came at a critical juncture as global crises - including armed conflict, adverse climate impacts and the lingering effects of the Covid-19 pandemic - threaten the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.

The 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly began Monday as did the 2023 SDG Summit.

It reviewed the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and provided high-level political guidance on transformative and accelerated actions for achieving the goals.