Kazakhstan is the most urbanized
country in Central Asia. Presently, nearly 62 percent of the country's
population resides in cities. Michaela Friberg-Storey, the United Nations
Resident Coordinator for Kazakhstan, discussed the country's achievement of
Sustainable Development Goals indicators in Astana. According to her,
representatives of the international community commend Kazakhstan’s progress
towards these global objectives. The country systematically addresses modern
challenges, with the government implementing a number of specific measures,
including establishing a legal framework and defining long-term objectives.
Particularly, Kazakhstan will play an active role as a dialogue platform to
discuss contemporary global challenges for the entire region, according to
Michaela Friberg-Storey. To this end, there are plans to open the UN SDG center
for Central Asia and Afghanistan in Almaty. The Head of State also places
significant emphasis on achieving these goals.
“We see that the government puts
great priority to access to water, to SDG6. But we also know, as the President
states that this is a transboundary issue. The challenges that Kazakhstan faces
cannot be met only by Kazakhstan. We know that a new Water Code is underway.
And we recognize the importance on putting focus on this by establishing a
Ministry for water resource management. I am sure that that will further
support the implementation of the SDG6,” said Friberg-Storey.
It is worth noting that the fight
against the modern challenges facing humanity on a global scale is planned to
be discussed at a special summit in New York, scheduled for September 18-19. A
declaration is expected to be adopted following the event, which will bring
together heads of state and government from different countries.
