Video Message
Your Excellency, Mr. Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, Prime Minister of Malaysia,
Distinguished Delegates,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Let me start by congratulating the Malaysian Government for hosting the 15th Regional Environmentally Sustainable Transport Forum in Asia in the beautiful city of Kuala Lumpur.
This meeting is taking place after the 2023 SDG Summit, where world leaders reaffirmed their commitment to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
At the Summit, the Secretary-General also underscored that with nearly half of SDG targets moderately or severely off track, the world needs an immediate course correction.
Therefore, as you embark on your deliberations, I urge you to make the most of the SDG Summit’s momentum to spur progress in the years ahead.
More importantly, your deliberations should also inspire solutions to the climate crisis. As we are all aware, transport is a major source of green-house gas emissions.
The consequences of climate change are threatening lives and livelihoods all over the world. Achieving the SDGs and addressing climate change is the only way to overcome this existential threat.
In this regard, we are delighted to see the growing support for the Aichi 2030 Declaration, which was adopted in October 2021 in the Aichi Prefecture of Japan. The Asian EST Forum and Aichi 2030 Declaration have laid a foundation for integrated policy consultations on climate and sustainable development for greater synergies.
Successful implementation of Aichi 2030 Declaration will require considerable financial investment as well as technical capacity-building at local and national levels.
Hence, we need multilateral development banks and other donors to significantly scale up funding to support the next generation of sustainable transport solutions.
Distinguished Delegates,
I sincerely thank the Government of Japan for continuously supporting the Asian EST initiative since its inception in 2004.
I would also like to recognize the Asian Development Bank’s valuable support and cooperation in realizing the Aichi 2030 Declaration.
Last but not the least, I am also thankful to the International Union of Railways for co-organizing the Asia-Pacific Rail Summit 2023 – which is an official pre-event of this Forum- as rail is an important component of sustainable transport.
We sincerely look forward to working with all of you towards collective action in accelerating the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs.
I wish you a successful meeting.