Member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and China have been boosting partnership in the course of implementing the 2030 sustainable development agenda in the region, officials said on Monday.
Vongthep Arthakaivalvatee, deputy secretary-general of ASEAN for Socio-Cultural Community, said the successful implementation of the 2025 vision and the 2030 agenda will be the key determining factor in the group's move to its community integration process which was formally launched in last December.
"I really want to say ASEAN is appreciative of China's support and look forward to learning and understanding China's approach of the SDGs," said Vonthep at a symposium in Jakarta.
The symposium, hosted by the ASEAN secretariat, China's Mission to ASEAN, and the United Nations Development Program, addressed the challenges in implementing the 2030 Agenda and ASEAN Vision 2025, and also sought to find complementarity in working together for community building and sustainable development in this region.
Xu Bu, the Chinese ambassador to ASEAN, stressed that sustainable development is the shared goal of China and ASEAN as both are facing common tasks of development and sharing a similar environment of complexity.
Therefore, on the path towards sustainable development, China should be ASEAN's closest partner," he says.
"We should stay focused on enhancing China-ASEAN strategic partnership by optimizing and upgrading the current cooperation in various fields. We should also make the best use of sub-regional cooperation mechanisms to open up fresh ground and reap new fruits of sustainable development," he added.
In September 2015, more than 190 countries unanimously adopted 17 goals, in the areas of poverty eradication, environmental sustainability, health, education and investment, which they seek to have achieved by 2030.
Similarly, ASEAN member states in November 2015 established a list of their integrated visions for 2025, which include inclusivity, sustainability, resilience, and dynamic.
