Opinions & Interviews

MINSK, 6 December (BelTA) – Belarus suggests the UN develops a comprehensive and long-term strategy for middle-income countries, Belarus’ Permanent Representative to the United Nations Valentin Rybakov said at the UN General Assembly High-Level Meeting in New York, BelTA learned from the press service of the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The meeting was held to discuss the gaps and challenges of middle-income countries in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

The event was initiated by Belarus and organized in such a format for the first time ever.

The representative of Belarus as a Vice President of the United Nations Economic and Social Council spoke at the opening ceremony. He emphasized the role of middle-income countries in global efforts to achieve Sustainable Development Goals, and also the Council’s work in supporting these countries to implement the 2030 Agenda. Valentin Rybakov stressed the importance of the recognition and support of this category of countries by the UN development system. He also made a number of observations regarding the engagement of agencies and programs of the UN development system with this category of states.

The Belarusian diplomat also spoke in favor of elaborating a comprehensive UN system-wide and long-term strategy for middle-income countries. He called the strategic framework for partnership with the middle-income coutnries prepared by the director general of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization as an important step in this direction.

The Belarusian representative stressed the need to develop a more detailed classification of such countries to go beyond the per capita income criteria and take into account specific development problems of these countries. In this regard, Valentin Rybakov suggested that the Committee for Development Policy of the United Nations Economic and Social Council engage in the development of multidimensional indicators to assess the development progress in middle-income countries.