Treasury Minister Ian Ling Stuckey had productive discussions on the Sustainable Development Goals with the second highest person at the United Nations in New York last Friday.

“I am very pleased with the informative and very positive discussions held with the United Nations Deputy Secretary General, Amina Mohammed, on the integration of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the budget and economic frameworks of PNG”, a- he declared.

Ms. Mohammed also chairs the United Nations Sustainable Development Group.

“His insights as the former finance minister of Nigeria, a country of over 200 million people also facing major development challenges, have been particularly helpful,” Ling-Stuckey said.

“During the discussions, the UN Assistant Secretary General offered to engage in even more direct discussions to mainstream the SDGs into PNG’s plans for fiscal repair and reconstruction.

She offered to participate in a videoconference to discuss these plans after the work of the United Nations continued for the remainder of the year.

She has also generously offered to join any briefing for new parliamentarians after the election on the importance of these Sustainable Development Goals which closely align with PNG’s own priorities.

“PNG is privileged to have such a senior United Nations leader so interested in PNG,” he said.

She visited PNG last year, traveling outside of Port Moresby and into the province of Hela on an extended visit.

During the discussions, Ms. Mohammed spoke about the importance of recognizing the diverse and positive work that is often underway in local and rural areas – there was a need to look at PNG beyond Port Moresby.

“I am confident that we can work with the United Nations and other international partners to integrate the Sustainable Development Goals into our recovery and reconstruction plans from the COVID-19 pandemic,” Ling-Stuckey said.

“As we see in the Delta variant, this is a truly devastating global pandemic.

“We have to face the current health crisis, supported by the budget, including the more than KK 500 million allocated to COVID-19 support programs at the local level in agriculture, Wash and SMEs and others health and safety activities.

“We need to do better than the failed policies of the previous O’Neill government.

which has seen a catastrophic drop in immunization programs in our country. We need to plan for a new and better future where we seize the opportunity to do things better, ”he said.

and more inclusively in accordance with the new development program of the government of Marape ”, declared the treasurer