Excellencies,

Distinguished guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

          At the outset, I would like to express, on behalf of the Lao Government, my profound gratitude for the invitation extended to me to attend this important meeting. This Workshop under the theme “Navigating the Headwinds of Sustainable Development in ASEAN” offers us an important platform to  exchange experiences and good practices in order to identify ways and means to enhance our collected efforts in attaining the SDGs in the region and the world at large. I am delighted to have this opportunity to be one of the keynote speakers and share the Lao PDR’s endeavors to streamline and integrate the SDGs into our country’s development plans and strategy.

          Throughout five decades of its existence has not only grown in term of size but also in the scope our goals and aspirations. As a single entity ASEAN ranks 7^th largest economy in the world. 2015 was also a pivotal year for ASEAN as it succeeded in reaching two important milestones which was the establishment of the ASEAN Economic Community that brought over 600 million people together into a single market with free trade and movement across borders as well as the adoption of the ASEAN Community Vision 2025. At the global stage, world leaders adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development which charted a course for the international community’s development efforts for the future. Despite these significant achievements  however ASEAN still needs to address several challenges that limit the impact and pace of implementing the SDGs on a regional scale such as inadequate, national statistical development weak government institutions, inefficient  human resource capacity, and others just to name a few. On a global scale, the international community also continues to face challenges such as stagnant growth of the global economy, decelerated trade and investment and the rise of non-traditional challenges and uncertainties occurred in many parts of the world, all of which potentially have hampered development during the last decade.

Distinguished Guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

          Amidst the growing drawbacks, it was agreed upon in a special session held by ASEAN Foreign Minister’s in September 2016 that there was a need to develop ways in which ASEAN as a region could contribute to regional and global efforts in promoting sustainable development. It became increasingly apparent that there were several similar priority areas that existed between the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and attaining the SDGs, and of realizing the ASEAN Community Vision 2025 and its Blueprints. Individual and collective efforts and advancement made in the regional level in areas such as reducing poverty and hunger, tackling inequalities, promoting infrastructure development, fostering sustainable economic growth, protecting the environment and management of resources, minimizing the adverse impact of climate change and ensuring sustainable and inclusive development can in the long-term compliment the international community’s efforts in implementing and attaining the sustainable development goals. This view was reaffirmed recently during the High-Level Brainstorming Dialogue that was held in Bangkok, Thailand in March 2017. It emphasized that strengthening and enhancing regional cooperation and building synergy and complementarities between the three Community Blueprints of ASEAN and the SDGs as well as identifying priority cross-cutting areas that will accelerate long-term benefits and attain regional and global development agendas.

          The Lao PDR, as a member of ASEAN and the United Nations, has benefited from regional and international efforts in development. Being both an LDC and a land-locked country, the Lao PDR has always attached infrastructure development as one of our top priorities in order to lay foundations to transform itself from a land-locked to a land-linked country. In this context, the Lao Government attaches great importance to mainstreaming the UN 2030 development agenda and adopting the principles of sustainable development into our national development plans and strategies. Implementing the 2030 Agenda however is no easy feat because it places significant demands on public budgets and capacities especially for developing and least-developed countries. Therefore, in order to maximize mobilization and efficient use of resources for development we have placed greater emphasis on promoting multi-stakeholder partnerships between the government and development partners. The Lao PDR has given great importance to forging inclusive partnership in order to achieve national development objectives and in particular the SDGs. In this regard, the Round Table Process, Co-chaired by the Government and UNDP, has become a key mechanism to promote dialogue between the central Government, local authorities, development partners, private sector, civil society and other stakeholders in key issues such as identifying development priorities and intensifying cooperation as well as coordination and aid effectiveness.

Distinguished Guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

          The Government of the Lao PDR has firmly upheld its political will and unwavering commitment to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by formally establishing the National Steering Committee on the implementation of the SDGs which is chaired by the Prime Minister of the Lao PDR, H.E. Thongloun Sisoulith. The composition of the National Steering Committee includes Ministers and Vice-Ministers of relevant Ministries as well as representatives of concerned agencies and organizations. Mobilizing domestic resources, including domestic private sector investment is crucial to achieve the 2030 Agenda. This initiative was taken to ensure that the SDGs are efficiently mainstreamed with our 8^th National Socio-Economic Development Plan (8^th NSEDP) for the period of 2016 – 2020, the Ten Year Development Strategy (2016 – 2025) and Vision 2030 as well as re-allocating public expenditures and fostering an enabling environment to attract greater investment for development priorities. Approximately 60 percent of our 8^th NSEDP indicators are related to the SDGs indicators and with the assistance of the UN Country Team we are in the process of finalizing the national SDG indicators. In collaboration with UNDP we have also initiated various projects to raise awareness on SDGs via new technologies, digital channels, and social media as well as producing the first-ever 360 degree film for Lao audiences.

In pursuance of fostering an enabling environment suitable for achieving the sustainable development, the Lao Government took an important initiative by adopting our national SDG 18 entitled “Lives Safe from UXO”. Mitigating the impacts of unexploded ordnances on the lives of our people will pave the way for improving the lives and well-being of the rural population and ensure the success of implementing the SDGs at the sub-national level. The Lao PDR’s SDG 18 was officially formalized on the 7^th September 2016 in Vientiane during the 28^th and 29^th ASEAN Summit and related Summits by Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith and former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

Excellencies,

Ladies and gentlemen,

          As we are gathering here today to exchange our views and insights on how to grapple with current and the future trends in order to map out development path that ensures the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals at the national, regional and international levels. Towards this end, I would like to outline key areas that we should focus on. At the regional level particularly in Southeast Asia it is crucial to address development gaps and improve infrastructure to enhance and strengthen connectivity between our peoples as well as integration within and between countries in the region so as to ensure that attainment of the goals and advancement in development will be equally redistributed in society. Furthermore, we need to prioritize significant investment in social sector especially in education in order to promote human resource development and capacity building at all levels.

          In this regard, the Lao Government underlines the importance of SDG: 17 “Partnership for the Goals” because forging and reinforcing existing multi-stakeholder partnerships that is inclusive and relevant to national circumstances that helps addressing national development priorities is incremental to the success of implementing the SDGs. It is important for all parties to enhance our concerted efforts by supporting one another whether in the areas of transfer of knowledge, technologies and resources to address new development challenges that arise so that “No One is Left Behind”.