Madame President, Distinguished Delegates,

At the outset, let me first of all express my profound congratulation to you and all members of the bureau for convening this important HLPF leading up to the Summit of the Future. My delegation associates itself with the statement made by Uganda on behalf of Group 77 and China.

Distinguished Delegates,

We are now standing at a pivotal juncture in our journey toward sustainable development. As we passed the halfway mark to 2030 Agenda, our progress globally is clearly far behind the target we set to achieve. The on-going global headwinds and repeated shocks over the past years have severely impacted our development trajectory. It is indeed timely and imperative that we must uphold highly our collective commitment and remain united behind the 2030 Agenda, by taking the critical steps and efforts needed at much great speed and scale to get back on track and deliver transformative actions between now and 2030.

For the Lao PDR, our commitment to the global goals remains steadfast. We have firmly embedded the relevant SDGs and their targets within national planning process to balance economic growth aspiration with sustainability and social progress. This year, the Government of the Lao PDR presents its Voluntary National Review for the third time, highlighting milestone and progress, as well as development gaps and areas required policy and priority recalibration, with the aim to accelerate the implementation as part of the decade of action and its recommitment at the SDG Summit in September last year.

Distinguished Delegates,

For the remaining years of the SDGs and to move forward, the up-coming Summit of the Future represents a beacon of hope to strengthen multilateralism. As we look forward to its adoption, it is our fervent hope that the Pact for the Future will embody clear actions and future-oriented measures that align well with our immediate needs to address the unfinished development agenda. We highly value that the Pact for the Future will fortify the multilateral architecture by establishing a robust, efficient, and well-equipped United Nations at its core, founded upon the principles enshrined in the UN Charter and international law. Rather than introducing new commitments, this Pact for the Future will outline practical and concrete deliverables, specifically targeting the acceleration of the implementation of the SDGs that have veered off track. Given the paramount importance to prioritizing actionable measures, the Pact for the Future will realize reforms within the international financial architecture, ensuring that they benefit all nations with particular attention given to countries in special situations, like LDCs, LLDCs and SIDS.

With these sentiments, the Lao PDR remains steadfast in its call for the urgent fulfillment of all previous commitments by the international community, particularly to bolster the support extended to developing countries, especially enhanced international support measures for least-developed countries to address their development needs and graduate from the LDC status in a smooth, sustainable and quality manner. We believe that the eradication of poverty, and the narrowing development gaps require special attention, with due consideration given to Groups of Countries in Special Situations, so that no one and no country is left behind. In the same vein, we call for the international community to make every effort to create enabling environment conducive for peace and development cooperation and reduce the extent to which developing countries are subjected to various shocks which might happen in the future.

Lastly, I wish to reaffirm the Lao PDR’s unwavering commitment to uphold multilateral cooperation and collaboration to achieving impactful outcomes through harnessing global partnership, dedication and collective efforts with all partners in order to advance our common development aspiration and the realization of the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development.

Thank you.