UNITED NATIONS, April 14 (APP): The top U.N. official for Asia and the Pacific, Dr. Shamshad Akhtar, has emphasized the need to accelerate regional economic cooperation and integration in support of the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to advance stronger regional connectivity for shared prosperity.
“Enhanced regional integration will accelerate economic structural diversification and promote job-generating growth for sustainable development in North and Central Asia,” Dr. Akhtar, the UN Under Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), said at a special briefing held at UN Headquarters in New York.
“A valuable window of opportunity now exists for the subregion to revisit its development trajectory, and to effectively implement the new 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development,” Dr. Akhtar, the senior most Pakistani serving the United Nations, added.
