Haoliang Xu: Opening Plenary Address At The Responsible Business ForumIt is one year since every country in the world signed up to the Sustainable Development Goals.
They form a blueprint for addressing the most significant challenges facing our planet and its people.
Challenges like climate change.
This is likely to be the hottest year on record and here in Asia, climate change is a cause of the natural disasters that have claimed half a million lives in the last decade.
Challenges like inequality, which has been growing for four-fifths of Asia-Pacific’s population over the last 20 years.
Challenges brought on by the accelerating process of ageing, which will make it harder for many Asian states to provide basic services to their people.
The 17 SDGs will address these challenges and other interlinked issues, including education, hunger and security.
But governments cannot implement this blueprint on their own. Nor can the UN and other development organizations.