Business sector essential partner in achieving sustainable development: Dhaka UN forum

The two-day Asia-Pacific Business Forum has concluded in Dhaka with recommendations being made on specific areas of business related to sustainable development.

Those include the role of business in disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation, assisting governments in energy infrastructure investment for low-carbon future, and supporting trade and transport facilitation for regional integration.

The participants also renewed their commitment to strengthening the regional business community in order to meet the challenges related to corporate sustainability, complexities of the regulatory environment, and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

The Forum is the flagship regional business forum organised by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP).

Launched in 2004, it provides an 'effective' annual platform for regional public-private sector dialogue on the role and needs of business in achieving inclusive, resilient and sustainable development.

This year it was themed on “regional integration to achieve sustainable development”. President Md Abdul Hamid inaugurated the meeting on Wednesday.

More than 500 high-level professionals from both the public and private sectors participated in the Forum. Among them were Dr Mukhisa Kituyi, Secretary-General, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), and ministers from Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka.

ESCAP Executive Secretary Dr Shamshad Akhtar said achieving the 2030 Agenda depended on the Asia-Pacific region developing new forms of partnerships with businesses that go beyond the delivery of traditional government-to-government official development assistance and technical support.

“Such partnerships must go deeper and should focus on key areas of inclusive and sustainable development that are of mutual interest, including science, technology and innovation, human resource development, infrastructure development and multi-dimensional South-South cooperation,” she said.

The private sector can make 'profound' contributions to regional integration and sustainable development, she added.

She also said research indicated that 71 percent of businesses were already planning on how to engage with the SDGs and 41 percent would embed the SDGs into their business operations.

Through delivering on the SDGs, the private sector stands to potentially come by $12 trillion worth of business opportunities globally, which could create almost 380 million jobs by 2030, the ESCAP said in a statement.