Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Thailand co-chaired the 5th High-Level Brainstorming Dialogue on Enhancing Complementarities between the ASEAN Community Vision 2025 and the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, promoting Balance of Things through BCG economy model, Leveraging on  innovation & digitalisation and partnerships for sustainability at the 5th High-Level Brainstorming Dialogue on Enhancing Complementarities between the ASEAN Community Vision 2025 and the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

On 31 March 2021, H.E. Mr. Don Pramudwinai, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Thailand, together with Ms. Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana, Under-Secretary-General of the UN and Executive Secretary of ESCAP, co-chaired the 5th High-Level Brainstorming Dialogue on Enhancing Complementarities between the ASEAN Community Vision 2025 and the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (HLBD). This forum aims to promote regional cooperation in enhancing synergies between ASEAN Community-building and the implementation of the UN 2030 Agenda, or the so-called “Complementarities Initiative”. Participants of the 5th meeting included Secretary-General of ASEAN, high-level representatives from ASEAN Member States, UN agencies, and ASEAN’s external partners, including China, Japan, the Republic of Korea, the European Union, Switzerland, Norway, Italy, France, the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the Asia Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation.

In his opening remarks, the Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister put forth the following ideas as ways forward for the Complementarities Initiative: (1) Changing people’s mindset and ways of life to become more sustainable and promoting balance between human activities and nature or “Balance of Things” including through pursuing the Bio-Circular-Green (BCG) Economy Model; (2) Leveraging on innovation and digitalisation in addressing global challenges; and (3) Strengthening multi-stakeholder partnerships and turning competition to collaboration in order to create a peaceful environment conducive to sustainable economic recovery.

The Meeting reviewed progress made and discussed ways to advance the Complementarities Initiative based on the 5+1 priority areas of cooperation under the Complementarities Roadmap (2020-2025), namely, poverty eradication, infrastructure and connectivity, sustainable management of natural resources, sustainable consumption and production, resilience, and capacity-building. The Meeting also highlighted that sustainable development and the Complementarities Initiative can contribute to the post COVID-19 recovery and enhance regional resilience to future disruptions.

The HLBD is an annual meeting, having been co-hosted by Thailand, as the ASEAN Coordinator on Sustainable Development Cooperation, and UN ESCAP since 2017. Among concrete initiatives under the HLBD are the Complementarities Roadmap and the establishment of the ASEAN Centre for Sustainable Development Studies and Dialogue (ACSDSD) in Bangkok which has provided an institutional support for the coordination of the implementation of the Roadmap.

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