Vietnamese Ambassador Dang Hoang Giang addresses a meeting of the UN. Photo: VNA

On behalf of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Vietnamese Ambassador Dang Hoang Giang affirmed the bloc’s strong commitment to enhance development cooperation at a general debate of the Social, Humanitarian, and Cultural Affairs Committee of the 77th session of the UN General Assembly on September 29, VNA reported.

Ambassador Giang, Permanent Representative of Vietnam to the UN, expressed ASEAN’s concern that while the Covid-19 pandemic has yet to be over, food and energy crises, natural disasters like flooding and drought, inflation, mounting debt, and growing inequality have caused unprecedented pressure on people’s life, especially those in developing countries and vulnerable groups.

He stressed that it’s high time for the international community to put social development at the centre of recovery strategies to improve resilience, sustainable livelihoods, and welfare for people.

Representing ASEAN, he underlined that the bloc pledges to press on with social development issues, realise the ASEAN Vision 2025, the Hanoi Plan of Action, and other relevant documents of ASEAN to build a resilient and inclusive ASEAN community that leaves no one behind.

ASEAN is also committed to strengthening cooperation in sustainable development with the UN through promoting complementarities between the ASEAN Community Vision and the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development to build a better and more sustainable future, he noted.

Vietnamese Ambassador Dang Hoang Giang addresses a meeting of the UN. Photo: VNA

Giang revealed that the grouping is also making some guidelines for the implementation of the Hanoi Plan of Action on enhancing social work towards a cohesive and responsive ASEAN that is able to generate benefits for millions of people, thereby reflecting its increasingly strong commitment to promoting social protection in the region.

The same day, in a speech for Vietnam, Minister Counsellor Le Thi Minh Thoa, Deputy Resident Representative of the country to the UN, highlighted Vietnam’s efforts and achievements in realising the Sustainable Development Goals, responding to the pandemic, working towards net zero emissions by 2050, eliminating poverty, and ensuring social security and people’s rights.

She underlined Vietnam’s support for the role of the UN and the country’s active contributions to the international community’s common efforts in response to challenges to social development.

Regarding solutions to social development issues, Thoa stressed the need to resolve causes of poverty and inequality through vocational training, income generating chances, provision of quality educational and life-long learning services for all people, training of high-quality human resources, empowerment of people, and creation of favourable conditions for vulnerable groups.

The international community and development partners should also reinforce international cooperation, implement commitments on official development assistance (ODA), and mobilise resources for inclusive recovery, she added.

On the same week, Vietnamese Ambassador to the US Nguyen Quoc Dung on September 26 chaired three meetings of the ASEAN Committee in Washington D.C (ACW).

The events consisted of an ACW session discussing the committee’s plan of activities for the last four month of 2022, a meeting with ASEAN Secretary-General Lim Jock Hoi, and another with the US National Security Council and the US Department of State.

At the internal session of the ACW, the Vietnamese Embassy received the ACW Chairmanship handed over from the Thai Embassy.

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