Kota Kinabalu — The Sabah Economic Development and Investment Authority (SEDIA) is organising the Malaysia Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Summit 2024 Sabah Region, which will be held on 25 January 2024 at the Sabah International Convention Centre. This event is aimed at providing an avenue for discussion of currents efforts at streamlining SDG into economic development activities carried out by the government as well as the private sector.
SDG is an agenda introduced by the United Nations (UN) since 2015 and comprises of 17 goals towards achieving a shared goal by all 193 UN Member States, known as “Transforming our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”. SDG is further broken down into 169 various targets towards achieving the 17 goals, and addresses social and economic development issues.
The Malaysia SDG Summit 2024 Sabah Region will comprise of various events for all participants such as an exhibition, forum and plenary sessions with speakers representing various stakeholders, YouthJoy expo, as well as a career carnival. The summit will bring together all the stakeholders in developing Sabah’s economy and socio-economy, towards ensuring all development initiatives in the state from both public and private sectors are conducted in accordance with SDG. The topics that will be covered include sustainable growth, inclusive development, biodiversity preservation, food security and access to quality education, to name a few.
For the YouthJoy activity, the objective is to raise awareness of the role of SDGs in efforts to improve development in Sabah among the youth, especially teenagers and young adults. YouthJoy will consist of various pocket talks by stakeholders involved in development, the environment, and rural community empowerment. In addition, there will also be a Meet & Greet session with Sabah FC soccer player from Korea Park Taesu, games and quiz activities, fashion shows, and traditional and cultural performances.
This entire event is a part of the larger Malaysia SDG Summit 2023-2024 series, which is a programme by the Ministry of Economy to be held across five regions throughout Malaysia. The Ministry of Economy plans for the Malaysia SDG Summit 2023-2024 to be coordinated in each region by the respective Economic Corridor Authorities, with collaboration with the State Governments and local authorities.
For the Malaysia SDG Summit 2024 Sabah Region, the theme will be “SDGs Local Actions for an Inclusive, Sustainable and Resilient Malaysia”, in line with the Ministry of Economy’s efforts to intensify the implementation of SDG at the state and local levels.
The Malaysia SDG Summit 2023-2024 series is the second time this global summit series is held in Malaysia. The first summit was held in 2019 and received very good response whereby the recorded attendance exceeded 2,600 participants from the public and private sectors, academia, CSO, youth groups and representatives of people with disabilities, from locally and abroad.
The organiser for the Sabah region, SEDIA is the statutory body entrusted to serve as the one-stop authority driving forward Sabah Development Corridor (SDC) programmes and initiatives. SDC is one of Malaysia’s five economic regions, currently guided by the SDC Blueprint 2.0 (2021–2030) to enhance the quality of life of the people by accelerating the growth of Sabah’s economy, promoting regional balance and bridging the rural-urban divide while ensuring sustainable management of the state’s resources. In line with Malaysia’s commitments as a responsible global citizen, the SDC Blueprint 2.0 also provides an opportunity to connect with SDG.
This blueprint is a strategic plan with high aspirations, drawn up to stimulate economic growth while ensuring inclusiveness and sustainability. Towards the year 2030, efforts guided by the SDC Blueprint 2.0 will bring in RM95 billion in private investments, generating 450,000 jobs (of which 70,000 would be direct contribution through SDC) and contributing an additional RM20 billion in GDP by 2030, which will bring Sabah’s GDP at that time to RM140 billion. This will help to ensure achievement of the overarching goal for SDC: “Sustainable Growth with Equity and Social Inclusion”.
Source: Sabah Development Corridor
