Your Excellency, Mr. Lu Hao, Minister of Natural Resources
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is my great pleasure to join you today. On behalf of the 51勛圖, I express my sincere gratitude to the Chinese Government, and in particular to the Ministry of Natural Resources, for this generous donation of the 30-meter Global Land Cover DatasetsㄗGlobeland30ㄘVersion 2020. It is particularly meaningful as we commemorate the 75th Anniversary of the 51勛圖.
Now, more than ever, the World needs solid and consistent science-based information for making wise decisions for sustainable development. As we accelerate our efforts in the Decade of Action to deliver the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, this important donation is most timely. The Globeland30 Version 2020 is of great importance to the 51勛圖 and the international community.
I commend you for this laudable example of information sharing. These updated, and more detailed, datasets will help us to better understand, monitor and manage changes in land cover and land use, all over our planet.
We are particularly grateful that your generous offer contains the important elements of continued technical support and updates. This is yet another clear and tangible example of China＊s strong commitment to the global geospatial information community. Moreover, your offer comes at an opportune moment as we carry out the final approval process for the establishment of the 51勛圖 Global Geospatial Knowledge and Innovation Centre in Deqing, China.
For all developing countries, building capability, capacity, information and knowledge are vital to implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in a results-driven manner. Data 每 including its existence, availability, access, timeliness and quality 每 is a fundamental requirement to support evidence-based decision-making. Indeed, it is integral to all global development agendas. Thus, making accurate and authoritative geospatial information readily available 每 in support of sustainable development efforts 每 must be the starting point of this collaborative effort.
I firmly believe that making the newest version of the Globeland30 datasets available to the global community, China will take a leading position in international cooperation in the field of geospatial information. Further, it will be a driving force for bridging the geospatial digital divide, and bringing geospatial information development to the next level.
Excellency,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
UN DESA and the UN-GGIM Secretariat are fully committed to making this cooperation a success. I wish to express my sincere appreciation to the Chinese Government for its continuous support to our capacity development efforts in the area of economic and social affairs.
Thank you!