Japan
Intervention by Hiroshi Minami, Ambassador for Civil Society and Deputy Director General for Global Issues, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, at the 6th Session of the Open Working Group for Sustainble Development Goals
Thank you very much, Co-Chair.
I would like to make an intervention on Means of Implementation and Global Partnership, which are important elements for Sustainable Development, on behalf of my Government.
First, we have to face the new reality of the world. We believe that this new reality means the rapid growth of some developing economies and diversification of various stakeholders. I took note of a comment by Mr. Erik Solheim, the chairman of Development Assistance Committee of OECD, saying that South-South cooperation is increasing its importance. I believe that South-South cooperation is more important than ever, and such a trend should be encouraged. Likewise, the roles of the civil society, philanthropist organizations, new partnerships such as GAVI, and private sector should be important.
Second, on finance, we are looking forward to the work and the outcome of the Inter-Governmental Expert Group on Financing for Sustainable Development, and I really appreciate the Ambassador of Finland for his extensive explanation. On this issue, we believe that the mobilization of the domestic resources should be emphasized as the most important thing. In this sense, improvement of the tax collection capability is prerequisite. In the external resources, I do believe that ODA will continue to play an important role for poor countries, especially low income countries. However, I would like to touch upon two points. We would like to stress that the share of ODA in the total flow of financial resources to developing countries has been diminishing in these ten years. For instance, in 2010, the share of ODA in the total financial flow to developing countries was approximately one-fifth, though the share of the private flow was half of the total flow. Moreover, in order to solve the issue of the poverty eradication we have to address the issue of the poverty in middle income countries. But the role of ODA is limited to middle income countries as ODA does not flow very much to middle income countries.
Therefore, we believe that the role of private money is important and ODA should play a catalytic role to mobilize the private money.
Third, Technology, Science and Innovation is a key element for Sustainble Development. As Professor Heuer suggested yesterday, we believe that investments in R/D, education and basic science are crucial.
Last but not least, capacity building is a cross cutting issue, and statistical capability and data collection capability should be strengthened in developing countries by capacity building.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, Co-Chair.
I would like to make an intervention on Means of Implementation and Global Partnership, which are important elements for Sustainable Development, on behalf of my Government.
First, we have to face the new reality of the world. We believe that this new reality means the rapid growth of some developing economies and diversification of various stakeholders. I took note of a comment by Mr. Erik Solheim, the chairman of Development Assistance Committee of OECD, saying that South-South cooperation is increasing its importance. I believe that South-South cooperation is more important than ever, and such a trend should be encouraged. Likewise, the roles of the civil society, philanthropist organizations, new partnerships such as GAVI, and private sector should be important.
Second, on finance, we are looking forward to the work and the outcome of the Inter-Governmental Expert Group on Financing for Sustainable Development, and I really appreciate the Ambassador of Finland for his extensive explanation. On this issue, we believe that the mobilization of the domestic resources should be emphasized as the most important thing. In this sense, improvement of the tax collection capability is prerequisite. In the external resources, I do believe that ODA will continue to play an important role for poor countries, especially low income countries. However, I would like to touch upon two points. We would like to stress that the share of ODA in the total flow of financial resources to developing countries has been diminishing in these ten years. For instance, in 2010, the share of ODA in the total financial flow to developing countries was approximately one-fifth, though the share of the private flow was half of the total flow. Moreover, in order to solve the issue of the poverty eradication we have to address the issue of the poverty in middle income countries. But the role of ODA is limited to middle income countries as ODA does not flow very much to middle income countries.
Therefore, we believe that the role of private money is important and ODA should play a catalytic role to mobilize the private money.
Third, Technology, Science and Innovation is a key element for Sustainble Development. As Professor Heuer suggested yesterday, we believe that investments in R/D, education and basic science are crucial.
Last but not least, capacity building is a cross cutting issue, and statistical capability and data collection capability should be strengthened in developing countries by capacity building.
Thank you.
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