Romanian Government - among the initiators of Global Hub on Governance for Sustainable Development Goals

The Romanian Government, alongside the Columbian Government, initiated the Global Hub on Governance for Sustainable Development, which was launched on Wednesday, in New York, in the context of the 74th edition of the UN General Assembly. "In the context of the 74th General Assembly of the UN, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) have organised in New York a high-level event to launch the Global Hub for the Governance of the SDGs. The Romanian Government, through its Department for Sustainable Development, is among the initiators of this programme, alongside the Government of Columbia. The Romanian Minister of Public Finance, Eugen Teodorovici, represented the Romanian Government at the event, where he held a speech," informs a press release of the Government on Wednesday sent to AGERPRES. According to this source, Teodorovici said in his speech that starting with 2020 the national annual budgets will consider the implementation of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. "I want to point out that the Romanian Government, through its Department for Sustainable Development, and alongside its partners from all social segments, started a movement at the level of the entire society and managed to build a network of thousands of people dedicated to sustainable development. We are making efforts to bring welfare to every Romanian and not leave anyone behind. We will be part of the activities carried out through the Global Hub that we have launched today. We are ready to share from our experience and to adjust the successful stories about other states to our national particularities," said the Minister of Finance. The Hub that was launched on Wednesday is an initiative meant to facilitate inter-governmental cooperation and the exchange of good practices for the implementation of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the 2030 Agenda. Based on the OECD and UNDP, but also based on the experience of the government, we will create a new instrument to offer the best solutions in terms of public policies in the sustainable development field. The Hub includes an online knowledge platform that will provide access to successful examples for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda. More than that, it also offer a type of assistance to ensure coherence of the public policies, monitoring and assessment or budgeting based on results, reads the same release. "Romania continues to act as a regional leader in promoting the 2030 Agenda. Due to our intense activity in the past couple of years we gained significant experience and we've managed to establish a series of partnerships that facilitate international cooperation in the sustainable development field. This is already the second high-level event that we organise with the OECD. Moreover, we also have other ongoing projects that will facilitate applying the National Strategy for Sustainable Development, and also Romania's affirmation internationally in respect to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda," the coordinator of the Department for Sustainable Development, Laszlo Borbely stated. Holding speeches at the event were personalities such as the Secretary General of the OECD, Angel Guria, UNDP's Administrator, Achim Steiner, the President of Columbia, Ivan Duque Marquez, and other heads of state and government, but also coordinators of the implementation of the 2030 Agenda. "The coordinator of the Department for Sustainable Development is currently visiting New York, where he is set to participate in the first Summit for accelerating the implementation of the 2030 Agenda, which takes place every four years since its adoption. Moreover, he participated in the event "Leaders for Nature and People," organised by the WWF, which brought together heads of states and government such as: Prince Albert II of Monaco, Alexander Van Der Bellen, the President of Austria, First Deputy of the European Commission, Frans Timmermans, Boris Johnson, British PM, the PM of Norway, Erna Solberg, and other heads of state and government. The organisers want that in September 2020, at the 75th edition of the UN General Assembly, to sign the document "Emergency Declaration for Nature and People" to give a strong signal for the future of the planet. The leaders who attended the event undertook to sign such document. The Department for Sustainable Development will act internally so that the Romanian Government to join this important action too," mentions the Government in a release. Laszlo Borbely participated alongside PM Viorica Dancila in a meeting of the Secretary General of the OECD, Angel Gurria, during which discussions on sustainable development represented an important component. AGERPRES (RO - author: Dana Piciu, editor: Mihai Simionescu; EN - editor: Cristina Zaharia)