Since the UN announced its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and set up its 2030 Agenda in 2015, an opportunity different from the Millennium Development Goals of the past allowed nations to comprehensively re-examine developing challenges that contemporary society faces, as well as contribute toward a sustainable future.
As an academic and a member of the National Council for Sustainable Development, I thought the SDGs could be regarded as a shared language to explore, to practice and to shape a sustainable future.
Goal No. 17 in particular emphasizes the partnership relationship, providing a new vision to enable people to rethink collaborations across various domains and embrace the sustainable vision together.
The goals as a new, common language are widely employed, and have bilateral and interactive functions, ie, inputs and outputs.
Internally, the goals will become a policy guide, leading me to think about the core meaning of a sustainable Taiwan, as well as explore possibilities through multidomain and cross-generational models.
In Taiwan, branding using the goals is a great opportunity to shift past perspectives and jump out of a rigid framework. Indeed, Taiwan has always been committed to exploring the goals and building a sustainable nation, especially through the major policies initiated by the government in the past few years.
Externally, it would be possible to initiate interactions with different countries, which would facilitate Taiwan to exchange ideas with people worldwide, while contributing to promoting development around the globe. Strong partnerships with other countries could be built to contribute to sustainable development, as well as strengthen the development of a sustainable living environment.
Time flies; 20 percent of the time until the target year of 2030 has passed since the goals were announced, and challenges are becoming more severe. However, challenges and opportunities are often two sides of one thing, and Taiwan always keeps endeavoring and moving forward with global partners.
After the great efforts of Eugene Chien (簡又新), an ambassador-at-large — which were witnessed by European partners, such as the European Economic and Trade Office, the British Office Taipei, the Bureau Francais de Taipei and the Netherlands Trade and Investment Office — the Alliance for Sustainable Development Goals was officially launched on Tuesday by government agencies, academic and research institutes, corporations, non-governmental organizations and other cross-domain parties.
The alliance as a cross-domain collaboration platform embraces depth, breadth and effectiveness, and works with domestic and international partners to implement the sustainable vision together.
Witnessing this moment is a huge honor indeed. Taiwan is a part of the global village.
Let us keep going forward together toward imagining a better future for humanity and especially for Taiwan.
Chen Chih-wei is the chair of the Institute of Urban Diversity and Mobility and a member of the National Council for Sustainable Development.
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