I wish to convey our congratulations to Mr. Sam Kahamba Kutesa on
his election as President of the General Assembly at its
sixty-ninth session. We wish him success in the coming
year.
We are not living in the worst of times, but they
are not the best of times either. Standards of living are
far higher for more of the human race than ever before.
But we face global crises of several types: internal
and cross-border conflicts, epidemics, disasters both
natural and man-made, climate change and international
crime. We are facing grave threats from terrorism and
extremism. The latest manifestation is the Islamic
State in Iraq and the Sham (ISIS). It is brutal and
cruel and a travesty of all that religion stands for. Its
unspeakable acts of cruelty, including abductions and
brutal murders of civilians, constitute crimes against
humanity. Singapore condemns those terrorist actions
in the strongest possible terms. ISIS will continue to
target those who do not conform to its extremist agenda.
The threat of such terrorism and radical ideology
is not confined to the Middle East. It affects the whole
world. An estimated 15,000 foreigners from at least
80 countries, including from South-East Asia, have
travelled to Syria and Iraq to fight. That fact that ISIS
can attract so many foreign fighters highlights the
need for a comprehensive strategy to counter them. In
addition to military and intelligence efforts, we must
also combat the radical ideology used to recruit foreign
fighters, which fuels their extremist agenda.
Singapore firmly supports all international and
regional cooperation efforts. We welcome the strong
leadership of the United States, in particular in the
formation of the international coalition to combat the
ISIS threat. We also welcome the Jeddah Declaration
by Arab countries to stand united against ISIS. Security
Council resolution 2178 (2014), on foreign terrorist
fighters, which Singapore co-sponsored, is an important
step to combat global terrorism and will be critical to
cutting off financial and material support for ISIS and
preventing the movement of foreign terrorist fighters.
No country can insulate itself from those problems.
We need to combat them at all levels. Fair economic
development, good governance and political and social
stability will be critical in increasing a country’s
resilience against those threats.
The President’s choice of the theme “Delivering
on and implementing a transformative post-2015
development agenda” for this year’s session and his
emphasis on a comprehensive, action-oriented post-2015
development agenda are particularly timely. Singapore
commends the work of the Open Working Group on
Sustainable Development Goals and looks forward to
the Secretary-General’s report of its recommendations.
We also welcome the contributions of major
forums, such as the Third International Conference on
Small Island Developing States (SIDS), recently held
in Samoa. Singapore had the privilege of co-chairing
the preparatory committee for that forum with New
Zealand. It is important that the views and concerns
of small States be properly factored into the post-2015
development agenda. The Millennium Development
Goals (MDGs) were successful due to the pragmatic,
outcome-based and quantifiable approach to the
Targets. We hope that same approach will be taken in
respect of the post-2015 development agenda. Those
MDGs that were not fully achieved should be included
as an intrinsic part of the post-2015 agenda.
Regarding the principles for sustainable development,
Singapore is participating actively in the discussions
for the post-2015 period, focusing on those areas where
we can contribute — key principles that were critical
to our development path and might be relevant to other
developing countries.
First is the principle of honest and competent
government. Corruption is a drag on development and
an intrinsic source of social instability. Fighting it
needs political will, strong leadership and unceasing
vigilance from the whole society.
Secondly, rule of law is integral to sustainable
development. Governments need sound and effective
institutions. Those institutions, including the civil
service, the judiciary and law enforcement agencies,
must be built on core principles of equal justice and
meritocracy, regardless of ethnicity, religion or gender.
Social capital — the trust that people have in one
another, their leaders and the system — is as necessary
to sustainable development as financial capital.
The third principle is that economic and social
policy must be pragmatic, not dogmatic. Singapore
does not advocate any standard model of government
or economic structure. The only model is to work with
what you have within the context of a country’s culture
and resources, prudently and for the benefit of the
people. Policies have to be judged by their outcomes,
not according to ideological content. Both consistent
attention and responsive implementation are necessary
to achieve long-term goals. We will put those ideas
forward during the discussion.
Since the urban centres of small States tend to have
disproportionately large social, political and economic
weight in the country, a dysfunctional urban centre can
have a much greater negative effect on a small country
than on a big one. Today, slightly more than half of the
world’s population live in cities. By 2050, that will go
up to 70 per cent. Most of that growth will take place
in Africa, Asia and Latin America. As noted on page
17 of the report of the High-level Panel of Eminent
Persons on the Post-2015 Development Agenda, cities
are where the battle for sustainable development
will be won or lost. Mismanaged urbanization can
intensify inequalities. Asia is already home to 61 per
cent of the world’s slum dwellers, and Africa is home
to about 26 per cent. The Organization for Economic
Cooperation and Development has predicted that by
2030, 2 billion people could live in urban poverty. They
will be at risk from overcrowding, epidemics, crime
and pollution.
Yet, urbanization has in fact been significant
in the progress towards achievement of the MDGs,
especially in reducing poverty. Successful cities bring
up their rural hinterlands. Today, cities account for
over 80 per cent of global gross domestic product. The
outcome document of the United Nations Conference
on Sustainable Development (resolution 66/288, annex)
itself recognizes that well-planned cities promote
economically, socially and environmentally sustainable
societies. They are engines for growth and are more
resource-efficient than rural societies.
The challenge is therefore really to manage
urbanization well. Singapore has been contributing to the
discussions on sustainable urbanization as co-chair of
the Group of Friends on Sustainable Cities. Singapore’s
Centre for Liveable Cities was established in 2008 to
distil, create and share knowledge on sustainable cities.
It has developed a Liveability Framework as a tool to
analyse what a sustainable city would actually entail
and help countries define the policies they need to
achieve that goal. To us, a sustainable city means having
a competitive economy, environmental sustainability
and a high quality of life for all inhabitants, rich and
poor alike. We hope that the Liveability Framework can
be incorporated as part of discussions for the United
Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban
Development — Habitat III — in 2016.
In the area of water and sanitation, last year
Singapore submitted resolution 67/291 to the General
Assembly to designate 19 November as World Toilet
Day in the context of Sanitation for All. This year, we
will observe that Day together with relevant United
Nations agencies and civil society organizations by
focusing on the serious problems faced by women and
girls who lack basic sanitation access. That issue needs
greater attention than it has received so far.
What is the way forward? Once the post-2015
development agenda has been agreed, countries will
need to consider implementation. South-South, North-
South and triangular cooperation in capacity-building
and sharing experiences are important parts of the way
forward. In our early years, Singapore benefited from
the expert advice of specialized agencies, international
organizations and developed countries. In 1992, we set
up the Singapore Cooperation Programme to share our
development experience, the successes and the failures
alike, with other developing countries. The Programme
is designed to build capacity in fields that could
be of interest to countries, in the hope that that will
smooth their developmental path. Recently, at the third
Small Island Developing States Conference in Samoa,
Singapore launched a dedicated package for SIDS.
Singapore supports the universal and inclusive
approach to the post-2015 development agenda. Each
society must draw its own lessons from its own
experiences and find solutions according to its national
circumstances. Naturally, there will be differences of
opinion, but we must not lose sight of the ultimate goal
of ending extreme poverty in our lifetimes. With the
MDGs, we managed to halve the number of people
living below the poverty line, and there is real hope
that we can do even better.
Let us all work together to ensure that by the
seventieth anniversary of the inception of the United
Nations, in 2015, we can unite around a clear vision
of how to provide our future generations the future we
want.