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Public-Private Partnerships Hold Key to Advancing Inclusive, Sustainable Growth, Secretary-General Tells United Nations Forum on Industrial Development

Following are UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s remarks at the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) Forum on Financing for Inclusive and Sustainable Industrial Development, in Addis Ababa today:

I am pleased to be a part of this important forum, and I thank UNIDO for organizing it.  This year, 2015, is a critical year for all of us.  We have the opportunity to learn from what we have achieved under the Millennium Development Goals.  And we have the opportunity to build a new development framework for our common future.

We refer to our new objectives as sustainable development goals.  To lift people out of poverty, it is important to address the three dimensions of sustainable development — economic, social and environmental — in a balanced and integrated manner.  The proposed sustainable development goal 9 promotes inclusive and sustainable industrialization.

Often, when people think of industry, they think of pollution or bad labour practices.  But when countries industrialize in an inclusive and sustainable way, they can create decent jobs and preserve their resources without exploiting the environment or people.  This is at the heart of SDG 9.

Achieving the sustainable development goals requires more than finances.  I am convinced that partnerships are the means to implement the post-2015 development agenda.  UNIDO has been among the first to propose a concrete model to operationalize and advance SDG 9 with the Programme for Country Partnership.

The Programme convenes different partners, under the ownership of the host Government, to coordinate and optimize the contribution of each, and pool resources together.  This means that traditional financial flows for development are reinforced with new, additional sources of investment for greater development impact.

I applaud UNIDO and the Governments of Ethiopia and Senegal for their dedication and hard work towards advancing inclusive and sustainable industrialization in their countries through the Programme for Country Partnership.  They set an example for the rest of us on how to partner together to accelerate public investment and attract private finance in key industrial sectors.

These Programmes for Country Partnership can serve as a model for realizing the other SDGs too.  We must join forces to change our world and provide a life of dignity for all.  What we face together, we must solve together.  Thank you.

For information media. Not an official record.