PHNOM PENH: Prime Minister Hun Sen delivered a five minute speech at the High-level Dialogue of BRICS Plus Leaders on Global Development on Friday, 24 June, via videoconference, at the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping.
During his speech, he spoke of how the Covid-19 pandemic has damaged socioeconomic progress in developing countries towards achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. He said the region and the world continue to face increasingly acute challenges to development, related to geopolitical competition, military, trade and technological wars, climate change, monetary policy tightening, and more.
“These factors have been causing changes in the global economic architecture and disrupting the globalization trend, which has significantly reduced the global value chain and productivity,” said the Prime Minister.
In light of the subsiding spread of Covid-19 and increased efforts to recover the global economy, Prime Minister Hun Sen said the BRICS – as emerging economies with strong growth potential – have an increasingly crucial and indispensable role to play in expanding and strengthening the momentum of global economic activities to accelerate the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). He said the BRICS Plus cooperation, therefore, is also an important opportunity to strengthen global partnerships and establish a platform for promoting practical cooperation in key priority sectors.
He further emphasized the importance of adhering to a spirit of openness and support for multilateral trading systems to foster sustainable economic growth and enhance the resilience of regional and global value chains. He especially underlined promoting openness for international trade and reducing trade barriers for strategic commodities such as food, medicine, and energy.
He also called for special attention to be devoted to increasing cooperation in areas of capacity development, digital transformation and development of the digital economy, which have been identified as new sources of growth, especially for Least Developed Countries. Enhancing green economic development through the expansion of cooperation on building green infrastructure, promoting energy transition and leveraging green technology was highlighted as well.
Prime Minister Hun Sen closed his speech by saying that he will strive to play a more active role, as the 2022 ASEAN Chair, to further strengthen ASEAN cooperation with all partners in order to promote post-crisis economic recovery in an inclusive, sustainable and resilient manner, and with the central goal of achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
