Statement by His Excellency Mr. Srettha Thavisin, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Thailand, at the Leaders’ Dialogue 6 of the SDG Summit 2023,on “Mobilizing finance and investments and the means of implementation for SDG achievement”, 19 September 2023, United Nations Headquarters, New York
Co-Moderators,
Excellencies,
I am pleased to deliver my first address at the United Nations after recently assuming office here at SDG Summit.
Co-Moderators,
In this decade, we need transformative actions. We need to foster effective multilateralism and a strong multilateral architecture, which will allow us to accelerate SDGs implementation.
My government will play a proactive role on the global stage. We will reach out to our friends and partners to forge collaborations to meet these challenges.
To turn the SDGs into a reality, we must mobilize our financial resources. The international community must address the SDG financing gap, scale up SDG investment, and find innovative sources of finance.
We must level the playing field in international financial architecture. Thailand supports the Secretary-General’s call for the reform of this architecture, and his SDG Stimulus of 500 billion US dollars a year until 2030.
At the national level, Thailand has issued sustainability bonds which have raised 12.5 billion US Dollars in green and social investments. We have also launched the Thailand Green Taxonomy as a reference tool for activities deemed environmentally sustainable.
We plan to issue another set of Sustainability Linked Bonds to stimulate the growth of Green Bond market, and to ensure that all entities involved are properly incentivized to achieve our sustainability goals.
Co-Moderators,
As the Secretary-General notes, “GDP tells us the cost of everything, and the value of nothing”. What we need is a more people-centered and planet-centric development.
With the guidance of Sufficiency Economy Philosophy (SEP), Thailand’s own development approach, and the Bio-Circular-Green Economy Model (BCG), Thailand has submitted our national commitments toward SDGs attainment.
1. First, we pledge to leave no one behind. We aim to alleviate all households living with generational poverty by 2027. My government’s policies will focus on stimulating job creation and providing financial support at the grassroots level.
2. Second, we pledge to promote and protect the human rights of all persons. To promote the right to health, we will substantially invest to upgrade our Universal Health Coverage, to ensure that the number of households facing health impoverishment is below 0.25% by 2027.
3. Third, we pledge to foster cooperation at all levels in support of climate action, including ensuring access to affordable modern energy services for all by 2030.
Together, through effective multilateralism, we will leave behind a legacy of sustainability for our posterity.
Thank you.
