Planning minister, UN officials discuss sustainable development goals

Achieving global sustainable development goals will open doors for market opportunities worth $12tn: Better Business for a Better World report

Minister of Planning Hala El-Saeed recently received Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations (UN) Amina Mohamed and UN Resident Coordinator (RC) Richard Dictus, in order to look into linking Egypt's 2030 Vision with the UN's sustainable development goals.
"Egypt Vision 2030 must be reviewed every now and then. Our goals are stable, but the methods may be amended for many reasons, and we are trying to merge both with the goals of sustainable development," El-Saeed said.
The two sides have discussed ways of achieving sustainable development and linking sustainable development to investments, as well as ways to implement the two agendas: Global 2030 and African 2063.
Noteworthy, Egypt Vision 2030's main themes include economic development, the environment, knowledge and innovation, and social development. In terms of economic development, the Egypt Vision 2030 aims to lead the stability of the economy's overall conditions as well as achieve sustainable growth.
Within a similar context, the commission Business and Sustainable Development, launched in 2016, issued an executive summary titled Better Business for a Better World, which stated that the commission's work focuses on turning the global economy into one that is more prosperous and developed.
The global goals of sustainable development include eliminating poverty and famine, as well as promoting health, good education, equality between the two genders, making clean water available, providing clean energy, and enhancing the economy, in addition to many other goals that promote a better overall state of the globe.
In terms of the economic impact of achieving those goals, the report said that achieving them will open doors for market opportunities worth $12tn in the four economic systems that were under study by the commission, which are food and agriculture, cities, energy and materials, and health and well-being. These systems represent 60% of the size of the real economy, and they play a major role in the achievement of global goals. In order to utilise these opportunities fully, companies working in markets must seek to achieve social and environmental sustainability. It is worth mentioning that there are about 60 available market opportunities that come with the achievement of the global goals.
In its report, the commission has clearly determined the six steps that company-owners and entrepreneurs must implement to get a share of the opportunities available in the market.
These steps include mobilising support to adopt the global goals towards a correct strategy of growth, including the global goals in the strategies of companies, leading the transition towards sustainable commercial markets, working with decision-makers to push the real cost of natural and human resources, working to create a financial system directed towards long-term investments, and reconstructing the social contract.
Under a section named "making the choice", the report stated that nothing obliges commercial institutions to take part in leading the transition towards a sustainable global economy. Instead, they have two options. They can either continue to work the same way, resulting in the same slow progress towards sustainability, or it might be found that companies actually delay the transition due to the clear benefits they are currently receiving. However, both options do not have a future, according to the report.