PM launches strategies to promote inclusive sustainable businesses to achieve SDGs

• ESCAP extends fullest support to Sri Lanka to achieve SDGs – UN Under Secretary General Armida Alisjahbana

Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena yesterday launched the new strategies to promote inclusive sustainable businesses to achieve SDGs in Sri Lanka at the Temple Trees in the presence of UN Under Secretary General Armida Alisjahbana, who is also the Executive Director of ESCAP.

After the launch, Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena said that Sri Lanka’s vision for new Sri Lanka cannot be achieved without developing and promoting sustainable businesses. “Businesses today hold immense power not just as engines of economic growth, but also as agents of positive change,” he said. 

Pointing out that the 2015 Sustainable Development Goals or the SDGs rightly recognised this need by placing businesses at the heart of the global development agenda, he said that Sri Lanka is acutely aware of this potential; hence, engaging and empowering the private sector and harmonising the private and public sector businesses is considered to be crucial in our ambitious journey towards rebuilding a stronger country.

United Nations Under Secretary General Armida Alisjahbana, thanking the Prime Minister for stressing the importance of business sector to achieve SDGs, said that the UN and ESCAP would continuously support Sri Lanka’s efforts towards SDGs.

Ministers Dr. Ramesh Pathirana and Mahinda Amaraweera, diplomatic community, secretaries and senior officials were present on this occasion.