Dhaka: Asia-Pacific countries, including Bangladesh, aspire to remain at the frontline in ensuring inclusive sustainable development across the region following the spectacular achievements in fulfilling the targets in most of the MDGs.

The commitment has been echoed again at the UN headquarters in New York on Wednesday at a side event titled, ‘Outcomes of regional consultations on sustainable development (SD) and the post-2015 development agenda in Asia and the Pacific’, said a PID release on Thursday.

Organized by the Bangkok-based UN-ESCAP, the objective of the event is to share the outcomes of the various regional meetings and consultations that were convened by the ESCAP in integrating social, environmental and economic sustainability of the sustainable development process.

The event was participated by the representatives of the ESCAP member countries including Bangladesh have elaborated various aspects of SD like Blue Economy, Disaster Risk Reduction, Energy Efficiency and Sufficient Economy and country-specific experiences.

Opening the event, the executive secretary of the ESCAP Shamshad Akhter presented the overview of regional consultations on the SD for the region.  

She elaborated the challenges and opportunities of the Sustainable Development Agenda (SDA) that expressed by the member countries at various meetings, consultations including Asia-Pacific Forum for the last couple of years.  

While the Vice-Chair of the 2015 Asia-pacific Forum on SD, Vijira Narampanawa of Sri Lanka elaborated the sub-regional perspectives about the SDA.

Focusing on Blue Economy, the Permanent Representative of Bangladesh at the UN Dr A K Abdul Momen said, the Bay of Bengal connects Bangladesh with 334 million sq-km of the ocean area which warrants special attention in implementing SDA.  

He said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina already expressed her resolve to turn the Bay of Bengal to a hub for sustainable economic development and thus the prosperity of the country and detailed out her plan to sustainably harness the marine resources.  

She also called upon the regional and international communities to come up with pragmatic strategies and perspectives towards development of Blue Economy.  

Earlier, the visiting Executive Secretary of the ESCAP, made a courtesy call on the Permanent Representative of Bangladesh at the UN at his office and expressed the ESCAP’s eagerness to intensify relationship with Bangladesh in implementing SDA.