Your Excellency Muhammed Jusuf Kalla, Vice President of Indonesia,
Your Excellency Carmelo Abela, Minister of Foreign Affair and Trade Promotion of Malta,
Distinguished speakers, ladies and gentlemen,
I
It is said that “people tend to overestimate what can be done in one year and to underestimate what can be done in ten years”. Today, four years after we all agreed on Agenda 2030, we must accurately design the Decade of Delivery to achieve the SDGs by 2030.
That is why I would like to thank the Secretary General and the UN Agencies for this Summit that allows us to take into account our lessons learned and rethink how to achieve targets.
II
First, as an international community and in our own countries, we should look at the target areas in which we have negative long-term trends, such as inequality of income, reducing global greenhouse gas emissions, biodiversity loss, etc.
Second, we should address the 21 targets that mature in 2020 and analyse where and why we are not achieving these targets.
Next, we all must take critical action in the short and long term to ensure that we reach our targets for 2020 and 2030.
III
In Latvia, our government is in the process of agreeing our next National Development Plan that will bring us to 2028. We have identified the need to make fundamental changes in the following areas:
- Harnessing the potential of climate change policies and the circular economy across sectors. This means reducing greenhouse gas emissions, better managing our land resources, incentivizing our companies to make more efficient use of resources, etc.;
- We will be steering education and science policy toward the needs of the future economy – improving education, especially in the STEM areas, improving competency and workplace-based education, leaving no one behind:
- This is essential to move Latvia’s economy to a knowledge economy;
- Education and science is also important for reducing income inequality among people and regions;
- By 2028 we will be improving social inclusion, especially for vulnerable groups – the aged, persons with disabilities and those displaced by technological change;
- Our next fundamental change is one that I personally think is critical – we aim to increase a sense of trust in our justice and governance systems. I also think many countries will share our belief that improving media and social network literacy is one important key to strengthening critical thinking, democracy and rule of law.
Thank you!
