According to the Vietnam News Agency, at the reception ceremony, she highly appreciated the determination, efforts and achievements of Vietnam in implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and sustainable development goals (SDGs).

Ms. Alisjahbana appreciated the appointment of a Permanent Representative to ESCAP by the Vietnamese Government for the first time, and voiced her hope to further bolster the Vietnam-ESCAP cooperation and the ASEAN-UN partnership at large.

She hailed Vietnam’s socio-economic accomplishments in the past decade, noting that the country is a bright spot in curbing the spread of COVID-19 while maintaining economic growth amid complexities brought by the pandemic.

The ESCAP Executive Secretary highly valued Vietnam’s contributions while performing the double role of the Chair of ASEAN in 2020 and a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council for the 2020-21 term, which she said have helped promote the ASEAN-UN comprehensive partnership.

She agreed with a proposal of Vietnam that ESCAP increase policy consultancy and technical assistance for countries, towards post-pandemic recovery and better preparation for major uncertainties in the future.

For his part, Thanh affirmed that Vietnam is committed to and exerting efforts in carrying out the 2030 Agenda and SDGs, the Vietnam News Agency reported.

He welcomed the sound and effective cooperation between Vietnam and ESCAP, and hoped the relations will be further strengthened in a practical manner.

Vietnam stands ready to foster the ASEAN-UN comprehensive partnership and exchange views on emerging issues, especially measures for recovery after COVID-19 and to boost countries’ self-reliance and response capacity against future crisis, at the same time ensuring the common target of realising SDGs.

The Vietnamese diplomat requested ESCAP to roll out more projects in Vietnam and consider taking Vietnamese officials for internship at the ESCAP Secretariat to raise their capacity./.

BTA