UNIDO’s Dr. Berkel to highlight SDGs and industry way forward in Colombo today

From left: Himali Jinadasa- Senior Advisor to Minister Bathiudeen, New Delhi based UNIDO Regional Representative Rene Van Berkel, Head of UNIDO focal point office in Sri Lanka Nawaz Rajabdeen meeting Minister Bathiudeen in July 25

UN’s specialized agency for industrial development working to usher inclusive and sustainable industrialization framework will unveil its way forward on industry framework of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on Sri Lanka today. 

The visiting New Delhi-based UNIDO Regional Representative Dr. Rene Van Berkel will be addressing the Lankan public afternoon elaborating on background, opportunities and challenges for business from the SDGs and provide practical examples from the work of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization in South and South-East Asia on advancing inclusive and sustainable industrial development. 

Dr Berkel will be addressing the public today 2 October at 5:30 pm at CWE Secretariat, Colombo 2. Dr.  Berkel also visited Sri Lanka in July and met the Minister of Industry and Commerce Rishad Bathiudeen on 25th.

The 193 member states of the United Nations universally adopted on 25th September 2015 “Transforming our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”. T
The agenda is operationalized in 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with 169 associated targets, converging into one destination: the journey to the future we want! SDGs in the areas of poverty, nutrition, sanitation, health, education and environment are principally a diversification and extension of the efforts started during 2000-2015 under the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to speed up and redouble impact, particularly for the most vulnerable in society under the adagio of ‘reaching the furthest behind first’ to ensure that indeed ‘no one will be left behind’. 

Other SDGs are new, relative to the earlier MDGs, and aim to transform the large-scale drivers to sustainable development outcomes, including economy, jobs, industry, cities, consumption and production, peace, justice and partnerships. The 17SDGs as a package are integrated and ambitious, and hence indivisible.