David Abesadze, the Deputy Permanent Representative of Georgia to the United Nations delivered a speech at the 78th Session of the United Nations General Assembly Second Committee General Debate, saying that it was important to overcome the polycrisis in the world and to attain the UN Sustainable Development Goals by 2030 through “joint solidarity, more global cooperation and multilateralism”, the Permanent Mission of Georgia to the UN said on Wednesday.
In his address, Abesadze expressed the Georgian side’s readiness “to engage proactively” in the work on the matter and reinforce outcomes of the upcoming SDG Summit in New York.
Georgia reiterated its commitments to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda, citing the activities carried out by the Georgian Government in this regard, including the Action Plan 2023 for the Vision 2030 – Development Strategy of Georgia, localisations of the SDGs in the local self-government and adoption of Long Term Low Emission Development Concept.
The Government's Public Administration Reform and its plan to present third Voluntary National Reviews for the 2024 High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development were also emphasised by Abesadze.
Georgia has decided to increase its National Determined Commitments ambition in 2025, and to set the new target of emission reduction up to 47%. Further, to continue the progress towards SDGs the Government has started working on preparation of the Green Growth strategy and the corresponding Action plan”, Abesadze added.
At UN #2C gen. debate reiterated ????????’s str. commitment 2 impl. 2030 Agenda. Underl. importance 2 achieve SDGs, incl. Green Economy, tackling triple ???? crisis&spoke on ????????‘s efforts 2 this end. Stressed ????????’s Abkazia&Tskhinvali regions are deprived those benefits due2????????’s occupation. pic.twitter.com/IrQxkSXCeb
— David Abesadze (@dabesad) October 3, 2023
He highlighted the double-digit economic growth in Georgia during two years, noting the growth remained high at 7.2 percent within the period of January-July of 2023.
Abesadze expressed the Georgian delegation’s “regrets” that despite the above-mentioned development progress taking place in Georgia, people living in Georgia’s Russia-occupied Abkhazia and Tskhinvali (South Ossetia) regions “are left behind and continue to be deprived of their fundamental rights and freedoms”.
The Georgian representative to the UN said “the vulnerability of the world was hit hardest” by the pandemic and the lingering socio-economic, humanitarian and triple planetary crisis, further increased by Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine, affecting the global supply chains and prices of food and energy.