Minister for Foreign Affairs Battsetseg Batmunkh, who is attending in the 80th Session of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN ESCAP), delivered a speech expressing the position of the Government of Mongolia at the General Debate of the Session guided by the theme “Leveraging digital innovation for sustainable development in Asia and the Pacific”.
In her opening speech, Foreign Minister Batmunkh Battsetseg emphasized that the advancement of science, technology, and innovation plays a critical role in accelerating the implementation of the SDGs, serving as a global development roadmap, ensuring equality among countries and nations, and expediting the socio-economic development of developing countries.
Digital connectivity and transformation are strengthening national competitiveness, boosting the productivity of businesses and manufacturing, and providing people with new values and services while advancing the fourth industrial revolution and opening up new opportunities for sustainable development. However, advancing digital connectivity and transformation requires multistakeholder regional cooperation among governments, private sectors, and other stakeholders, particularly for countries facing resource constraints, such as Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries, and Small Island Developing States in our region.
In addition, Minister of Foreign Affairs Battsetseg Batmunkh attended in a side event entitled “Digital innovations for sustainable development in LLDCs”, which is being jointly organized by the Permanent Mission of Mongolia to the ESCAP, in collaboration with the UN ESCAP and the International Think Tank for Landlocked Developing Countries, Asia-Pacific Telecommunity and the Asian Institute of Technology.
At the side event, speeches were delivered by Armida Alisjahbana, Executive Secretary of ESCAP, Rabab Fatima, High Representative of the United Nations for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries, and Small Island Developing States, Atsuko Okuda, Regional Director of the ITU Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, Dulguun Damdin, Executive Director of the International Think Tank for Landlocked Developing Countries (ITTLLDC), Odbayar Erdenetsogt, Advisor on Foreign Policy to the President of the country, Tae Hyung Kim, Chief of the ICT and Development Section at ESCAP, and the Head of the Division of International Organizations at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan, Mongkol Ekpanyapong, Director of the Department of Industrial Systems Engineering at the Asian Institute of Technology AI Center. They spoke on the topic of Information Technology Development, addressing pressing issues and proposing smart innovation solutions for sustainable development.