외교부

General Debate

Ministerial Segment of the 2017 High Level Political Forum and

High Level Segment of the Economic and Social Council

19th July 2017

The Trusteeship Council Chamber, UN Headquarter, New York

Remarks by Mr. Jinkyu Jeong

Director General of Development Cooperation Bureau

Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Korea

His Excellency Amb. Frederick Shava,

Distinguished Guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

On behalf of the Government of the Republic of Korea, I wish to express my sincere appreciation to the Chair for organizing this important meeting.

I am very pleased to see that the number of countries participating in the Voluntary National Review (VNR) has more than doubled since last year and highly appreciate the efforts made by the 44 participating countries.

In the last year’s VNR, the Republic of Korea received valuable comments from fellow participants and civil society organizations, especially on how to coordinate efforts for the implementation of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at home. We have been trying to improve the existing domestic implementation mechanism, where the National Commission on Sustainable Development plays a central role. The Commission published the Report on National Sustainability last year, mainstreaming SDGs into policy guidelines.

Externally, the Republic of Korea is helping developing countries achieve the SDGs. We are currently working on establishing an ODA Results Evaluation Framework to mainstream the SDGs into our ODA policies. This will systematically link the SDGs, their targets and indicators to our ten core ODA areas; namely, education, health, public administration, rural development, water, transportation, energy, gender equality, climate change, and science, technology and innovation.

The Republic of Korea holds a deep interest in providing assistance to the most vulnerable — those living in the least-developed and fragile countries, women and children, and refugees. In 2016, we contributed 574 million dollars to the least-developed countries and 626 million to fragile countries.

The Republic of Korea will at the same time continue to expand its humanitarian assistance for those enduring the most serious refugee crisis in modern history. We contributed over 50 million dollars to refugees in 2016 and will contribute another 230 million by 2018, as we pledged at the Leaders’ Summit on Refugees held here in New York in September 2016.

Distinguished delegates,

Those efforts to combat poverty, however laudable, will fall well short of achieving prosperity without fairness, justice and equal opportunities for all. Therefore, while continuing its current efforts to implement the SDGs in a balanced manner, the Republic of Korea will strive to promote peace and democracy.

In this context, we will help fragile countries strengthen their social and economic institutions through our Conflict-Affected and Fragile Countries Support Strategy. We believe this is of the utmost importance since effective, accountable and inclusive institutions are the enabling factor to attaining the other SDGs.

As indicated in the theme of this year’s HLPF, the world is changing. In order to realize our vision of eliminating poverty and promoting prosperity, we cannot depend solely on government efforts. The government of the Republic of Korea therefore welcomes the non-public sector’s contribution and participation in development cooperation. We will join hands with companies and civil society to promote inclusive business models and improve monitoring on government policies.

The Republic of Korea hopes to build a more open, stable and peaceful world through these efforts. As a responsible member of the international community, Korea will join in global efforts to create and provide global public goods.

Thank you. /End/