Vietnamese Ambassador to Thailand and Permanent Representative of Vietnam to ESCAP Phan Chi Thanh (R) presents his credentials to UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana (Photo: VNA)Bangkok (VNA) – UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the UN Economicand Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) Armida SalsiahAlisjahbana on December 3 spoke highly of the determination, efforts andachievements of Vietnam in implementing the 2030 Agenda for SustainableDevelopment and sustainable development goals (SDGs).
She made the praisewhile receiving Vietnamese Ambassador to Thailand and Permanent Representative ofVietnam to ESCAP Phan Chi Thanh following the ambassador’s presentation of hiscredentials at ESCAP headquarters in Bangkok, Thailand.
Alisjahbana appreciatedthe appointment of a Permanent Representative to ESCAP by the Vietnamese Governmentfor the first time, and voiced her hope to further bolster the Vietnam-ESCAPcooperation and the ASEAN-UN partnership at large.
She hailed Vietnam’ssocio-economic accomplishments in the past decade, noting that the country is abright spot in curbing the spread of COVID-19 while maintaining economic growthamid complexities brought by the pandemic.
The ESCAP ExecutiveSecretary highly valued Vietnam’s contributions while performing the doublerole of the Chair of ASEAN in 2020 and a non-permanent member of the UNSecurity Council for the 2020-21 term, which she said have helped promote theASEAN-UN comprehensive partnership.
She agreed with aproposal of Vietnam that ESCAP increase policy consultancy and technicalassistance for countries, towards post-pandemic recovery and better preparationfor major uncertainties in the future.
In his remarks, Thanhaffirmed that Vietnam is committed to and exerting efforts in carrying out the2030 Agenda and SDGs.
He welcomed the soundand effective cooperation between Vietnam and ESCAP, and hoped the relationswill be further strengthened in a practical manner.
Vietnam stands readyto foster the ASEAN-UN comprehensive partnership and exchange views on emergingissues, especially measures for recovery after COVID-19 and to boost countries’self-reliance and response capacity against future crisis, at the same timeensuring the common target of realising SDGs.
The Vietnamesediplomat requested ESCAP to roll out more projects in Vietnam and consider takingVietnamese officials for internship at the ESCAP Secretariat to raise theircapacity./.
