Friday, May 6 2016 19:47

ArmInfo. Under the chairmanship of Armenia's Prime Minster Hovik Abrahamyan the session of the National Council for Sustainable Development of Armenia was held, the press-service of the Armenian government reports.

Secretary of the Council and Head of the Association for "For Steady Development" Karine Danielyan presented the program developed within the world program on implementation of the strategy of  "Agenda Rio + 20" UN conference on sustainable development till 2030.

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia Edward Nalbandian made a report on the UN sustainable development goals. He presented the results of the discussions held within the 70th session of UN General Assembly. The Armenian foreign minister noted that during the discussions on the level of heads of states the program of Millennium Development Goals approved in 2000 was summed up and the next program "Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development" was approved.  According to the minister summary of the MDG programs showed that UN member countries were not able to fully achieve the goals and the main obstacle was related to economic crisis of 2009. Nalbandian stressed that despite the fact that the crisis influenced Armenia as well according to surveys of UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific Armenia held the first place among 22 countries by expenditures on social insurance, ensuring 21% growth. In the same list Azerbaijan held the last position.  According to the minister efficient and targeted expenses are an important factor and resource availability is not always determinative.

Summing up the results of the session the prime minister stated: "I am happy to register that in this context Armenia is ahead of a lot of states but we still face a lot of problems. Now we need to launch the process of sustainable development goals and develop relevant standards". Abrahamyan instructed all the state agencies to consider this work as priority and provide necessary assistance to the activities of corresponding working group.