VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization held the Asia-Pacific Regional Strategic Coordination Meeting with the theme “Science to Enable and Empower Asia Pacific for the Goal of Sustainable Development” in Jakarta on Monday (30/7). Director and Representative of UNESCO in Jakarta, Shahbaz Khan, said that the two-day meeting tried to arrange the UNESCO scientific programs in Asia Pacific as a platform to effectively deliver the implementation of 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals.

"We have here 17 countries from Asia Pasific come here to discuss how science and technology can help us achieve better sustainable development. And especially for sustainable development goals, 17 of them. The goals like water for example. Water security, how can we eradicate poverty, how can we have better human health, how can we have this transparent system to better data and technology. So that’s the idea here," Shahbaz Khan said.

Furthermore, Shahbaz Khan explained that the Asia-Pacific Region has a significant role to ensure the Sustainable Development Goals can be achieved. Shahbaz Khan also said with an existing of 60% from the world population, the Asia-Pacific Region has immense potentials in developing various forms of cooperation among countries. In addition, Shahbaz Khan said that the Asia-Pacific Region has quite high vulnerability in dealing with several issues, such as natural disasters and equality. According to him, such issues can actually be overcome by the implementation of science and technology. (VOI/Ndy/trs Amanda/NT)