Eurasia Regional Section of the World organization "United Cities and Local Governments"
Eurasia Regional Section of the World organization "United Cities and Local Governments"
This year, the 2020 United Nations High-Level Political Forum on sustainable development is being held from 7 to 16 July 2020. Its theme is “Accelerated action and transformative pathways: realizing the decade of action and delivery for sustainable development”. In light of the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, all events are taking place virtually.
On July 10, during this Forum, UCLG organized a special event – “Local and Regional Governments Day”. The objective of the LRG Day was to bring together the whole delegation of local and regional governments to discuss and agree on the constituency’s Statement to the HLPF, reinforce linkages with partners from the UN, civil society, and other stakeholders; and define the priorities of the constituency for the decade of action.
Over 300 representatives of local and regional governments from all over the world took part in this event. They included Mayor of the Hague (Netherlands) Jan Van Zanen, Director of the UN SDG Action Campaign Marina Ponti, Vice-Speaker of the Parliament of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) (Russia) Aleksandr Zhirkov, Vice-Mayor of Madrid (Spain) Begona Villacis, Executive Director of UN Habitat Maimunah Mohd Sharif, Minister of International Relations and La Francophonie of Quebec (Canada) Nadine Girault and others.
Aleksandr Zhirkov, Vice-Speaker of the Parliament of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), delivered a speech on behalf of UCLG-Eurasia and highlighted that Yakutia as many other regions across the globe had faced challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, but sought to identify new opportunities for improving people’s lives as well. “In the context of the pandemic the demand for digital transformation has increased both in state and private sectors. Acceleration of the digitalization is important not only for Yakutia, but for all northern regions of the world, so that vast distances and complex transport logistics cease being an obstacle for the availability of social and commercial communications for northerners,” Aleksandr Zhirkov said.
Besides, Secretary General of UCLG-Eurasia Rasikh Sagitov, Head of the Department of International and Intermunicipal Relations of the Kazan Municipality Ruslan Galiakhmetov and others took part in the event.
10.07.2020
