(New York, 13 September to 23 December 2016)
General Debate
Theme: The Sustainable Development Goals: A Universal Push to Transform our World
STATEMENT BY H.E. PAUL BIYA, PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF CAMEROON
New York, 22 September 2016
Mr President,
Cameroon congratulates you on your election as President of this session. Your rich experience in the public and private sector both nationally and internationally, as well as your human qualities, augur well for our proceedings. In this regard, I wish to assure you of my country's support and the full collaboration of its delegation.
I am also pleased to commend the work done by your predecessor, Mr Mogens Lykketoft, whose tenure was marked by successful initiatives to make the United Nations a more open and transparent Organization.
Lastly, I would like to pay a glowing tribute to Mr Ban Ki-moon for the achievements made during his two terms within a particularly challenging difficult global context.
Cameroon, for its part, feels honoured about his visit in 2010 and hails the strengthening, during his term, of the excellent cooperation ties it enjoys with the United Nations Organization.
Mr Secretary-General, you will always be welcome to our country.
Mr President, Ladies and Gentlemen,
This session is opening in a context marked by turmoil of various kinds, where thankfully, there are some bright spots and glimmers of hope.
In a remarkable show of human solidarity, we have, in recent years, laid the building blocks of one destiny for humankind. Let me mention in particular the Rio+20 outcome document which is meaningfully titled "The Future We Want", as well as the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the new 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and lastly, the Paris Agreement obtained at COP21.
Within this context, my country welcomes your decision to place your tenure under the banner of implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. It therefore hails the holding of this debate on the Sustainable Development Goals nine months after their adoption. The SDGs, it should be recalled, constitute the first global agenda that considers development in all its dimensions: security, economic, social, human and environmental.
Clearly, the originality of the 2030 Agenda lies in the fact that it goes beyond the conventional indicators of economic growth. It truly focuses on human progress,
humanity's heritage, commonweal, security for all ... It is an ambitious agenda which requires everyone's genuine involvement.
Under this agenda, our common goal is to alleviate poverty and to leave no one behind. It is a challenge that we have set for ourselves and that we must take up together in order to respond to the expectations of our peoples and in short, the summons of history.
Mr President, as you are aware, we have, in the past, adopted agendas, declarations, and action programmes which raised great hopes in the world among the youth, women and men in the cities and in the countryside. They heralded a new world of peace and shared prosperity.