Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son attended virtually the 15th session of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) quadrennial ministerial conference on October 6.

At the Conference, minister Bui emphasized three reasons why UNCTAD has made a very important point this year: i) digitalization and innovation have brought about profound transformation on how the world interacts and cooperates; ii) the inequality among and across nations is deepened not just in sharing the benefits from globalization but also in the resilience and capacities to recover from crisis; and iii) global challenges, notably climate change and the Covid-19 pandemic unveil an unprecedented global health, economic and social crisis that hurts all countries.

The Vietnamese minister highly appreciated the theme of UNCTAD 15: “From Inequality and Vulnerability to Prosperity for All”, commenting that the theme reiterated UNCTAD’s commitment to ensure trade and development work for all and in pursuit of the Sustainable Development Goals.

As the world is looking at a future of development, where green trade and digital trade should be incorporated within trade policy-making; where global efforts should be accelerated towards a model that is more resilient to shocks, sustainable and ultimately more inclusive, Bui shared his thoughts in to contribute to formulate global policy responses and to set UNCTAD’s priorities for the next four years.

The thoughts mentioned that multilateralism and international coordination should be further strengthened to contain Covid-19 worldwide, advance full global recovery, enhance adaptability to the new normal and lay a development foundation resistant to future global shocks. It is also mentioned that the future of development should not only be economically resilient, but also environmentally sound and socially inclusive and that UNCTAD needs to accelerate global cooperation in leveraging the potentials of innovation and digitalization to foster new impetus for a sustainable development and innovation-driven growth.

Bui closed his statement by affirming that i) Viet Nam’s most important and urgent task is containing the pandemic and accelerating socio-economic recovery as its vision is placing people’s well-being at the heart of the country’s policy making process; and ii) Viet Nam looks forward to enhancing international cooperation in science, technology, innovation and digital transformation in order to attain our socio-economic development goals as well as to join the global community in nurturing peace, stability, development and prosperity for all.

Virtually held between Barbados and Geneva from 3 to 7 October 2021, with pre-conference events running online throughout the year, starting from April 2021, the 15th session of UNCTAD quadrennial ministerial conference comes at a time when there is a need to reignite a spirit of optimism and collaboration globally, not only to solve the twin challenges of inequality and vulnerability but to ensure trade thrives and is a driver of development.

The Conference, which is under the theme of “From Inequality and Vulnerability to Prosperity for All”, aims to make an urgent call for action to avoid global failure. As COVID-19 pandemic has shown more than ever a clear gap between the rich world and developing nations, the conference has also been considered as an important opportunity to change course and move from rhetoric to action.

UNCTAD is a permanent intergovernmental body established by the United Nations General Assembly in 1964. Its headquarters are located in Geneva, Switzerland, and it has offices in New York and Addis Ababa.

UNCTAD is part of the UN Secretariat, reporting to the UN General Assembly and the Economic and Social Council but has its own membership, leadership, and budget. UNCTAD is also part of the United Nations Development Group./.