Excellencies, dear colleagues,
Ladies and gentlemen,
I am pleased to welcome you to the launch of this year¡¯s Sustainable Development Goals Investment Fair.
This event has grown and evolved, over the years, into a dynamic space for germinating concrete opportunities to advance and accelerate the SDGs from the ground up. Every one of the investment opportunities featured here has potential to generate a combination of financial, economic, and social dividends.
Collectively, over ten billion dollars of investment can be mobilized through these efforts.
Countries will showcase strategic national investment priorities over the course of the week.
For example, Ecuador is seeking to construct a new toll road to open trade access for small businesses.
In Serbia, construction of a bio-tech innovation hub aims to propel startups and skills development.
Colombia is seeking to finance its largest greenfield offshore wind energy project.
This is just a small sample.
We hope, that over the next three days, this Investment Fair will lead to new collaborations between financiers, businesses and governments, with the common purpose of achieving the SDGs.
At the same time, we recognize that investing in the SDGs is not only about directing monetary capital. It is also about harnessing political, social, and human capital more efficiently to address the mounting challenges we face.
Throughout the course of the Fair, discussions will cover areas such as sovereign green and social bonds issuance, public-private partnerships for sustainable infrastructure, financial regulatory frameworks, and enabling policy frameworks to crowd in private investment for sustainable development.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Countries everywhere are accelerating efforts to find the technological solutions and business models that can ensure more prosperous, sustainable, and equitable societies.
Let us harness the collective intelligence and resources of this gathering to help identify those solutions, and to drive SDG investment. Together we can and we must channel the resources we need and build capacities to make sustainable development a reality for our people and planet.
In closing, I assure you that UN DESA will continue to extend its full support to countries in driving the momentum for sustainable and resilient solutions for all. The Sustainable Development Goals will continue to guide our efforts.
The insights and seeds of collaboration that you plant this week will be invaluable as we progress towards a fourth International Conference on Financing for Development, to be hosted by Spain in 2025.
We congratulate the countries that have facilitated the development of these projects to advance a more inclusive, and sustainable future. And we look forward to even more engagement on the road to FfD 4.
Thank you!