Cabinet minister hails cooperation with UN

Manama, Aug. 9 (BNA): Cabinet Affairs Minister, Mohammed bin Ibrahim Al-Mutawa, received here today the UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative for Bahrain, Amin El-Sharkawi. The minister expressed thanks and appreciation to the UNDP and the UN offices for supporting Bahrain’s development efforts, citing the assistance provided by the UNDP to the kingdom during the preparation of its First Voluntary National Review (VNR), which was presented during the Ministerial Meeting of the 2018 UN High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF), held at the UN headquarters on July 16-18. Under the leadership of His Royal Highness Prime Minister Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, the Government of Bahrain is keen to strengthen cooperation with the UN and its specialised agencies to avail of their expertise to push the kingdom’s comprehensive development march forward, Al-Mutawa. The minister highlighted the Cabinet’s approval of a recommendation to ensure that the next Government Action Plan (GAP) should be consistent with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2030 and the Post-2015 Agenda, and request to the National Information Committee to follow up on the matter, as well as to the Information and e-Government Authority (iGA) to set up a section to monitor the progress made in achieving SDGs and to measure their indicators. Al-Mutawa also highlighted the cabinet’s approval, during Monday’s regular weekly session, of a draft agreement between Bahrain and the UN to establish a regional centre for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) for the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL). El-Sharkawi congratulated the minister on the success of the Bahraini team during the presentation of the kingdom’s first VNR, as well as on the success of the events organised by the Housing Ministry, Tamkeen and the Labour Market Regulatory Authority on the sidelines of the HLPF last month. The UN official lauded the cabinet’s resolutions regarding the decisions to make the next GAP consistent with SDGs, and to set up a section to monitor the progress made in achieving SDGs at the iGA. He expressed the UN’s readiness to provide technical assistance through cooperation with the National Information Committee and the IGA.