2019 UN Asia-Pacific Regional Symposium on SDGs

The Ministry of the Interior and Safety (MOIS, Minister Chin Young) hosted the 2019 Asia-Pacific regional symposium, titled the Symposium on “Leveraging Public Governance to Accelerate the Achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals – Transformation, Innovation & Inclusion,” in collaboration with the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA) and the Incheon Metropolitan Government on November 20-22 in Songdo Convensia, Incheon.

The regional symposium in Asia and the Pacific has taken place annually in Incheon since 2017 with an aim to share experiences in developing public administration within the region.

The regional symposium brought together about 230 participants from 64 countries including Mr. Chin Young, Minister of the Interior and Safety, Mr. Liu Zhenmin, Under-Secretary-General for UN DESA, Mr. Ban Ki-moon, 8th UN Secretary-General, Mr. Anwar Sanusi, Secretary General of the Ministry of Village, Development of Disadvantaged Region and Transmigration of Indonesia, high-ranking figures, scholars and representatives of private organizations at home and abroad.

Under the theme of “Leveraging Public Governance to Accelerate the Achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals – Transformation, Innovation & Inclusion,” the regional symposium touched upon capacity-building of public institutions, transformation of public administration, government innovation, and inclusive governance for achieving SDGs.

Prior to the high-level session on November 21, Minister Chin Young met with UN Under-Secretary-General Liu Zhenmin and discussed ways to foster cooperation with UN for the achievement of SDGs in the Asia-Pacific region.

In his opening address at the high-level session, Minister Chin Young underscored the need to examine the basic principles for administrative innovation.

Minister Chin noted that “UN recognizes the Asia-Pacific regional symposium as one of the best practices for supporting the accomplishment of SDGs in countries around the world.” “MOIS will expand cooperation with international organizations including UN to spread Korea’s good practices on innovation to many countries,” he added.

At the symposium, 58 students from the Technology Management, Economics and Policy Program of Seoul National University and 42 foreign graduate students from the Korea Development Institute shared their cases and experiences by topics.

As a special event, the 3rd Youth Forum on SDGs Implementation was held in parallel with the regional symposium. Nine participants selected through the preliminary and final rounds exchanged their ideas on SDGs policies from the perspective of youth and had a heated discussion on how to engage with young people in implementing SDGs.

More details of the symposium can be found on the website of UN DESA. (https://publicadministration.un.org/en/news-and-events/calendar/ModuleID/1146/ItemID/3023/mctl/EventDetails)
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