The Minister of Land Transport and Light Rail and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Regional Integration and International Trade, Mr Alan Ganoo, participated in the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) fourth Oceans Forum on trade-related aspects of Sustainable Development Goal 14, which was held from 06 to 08 April 2022 in Geneva.
In his keynote address during the High-Level Segment “Towards a Blue Deal for post-COVID 19 recovery and resilience”, Minister Ganoo dwelt on diverse and cross-cutting topics, ranging from the transition towards a sustainable ocean economy through socio-economic recovery to the exploration of the emerging concept of a “Blue Deal”.
He also highlighted that the Forum comes at an opportune moment as it will provide a platform to define the contours of new economic frontiers and the need to adopt sustainable best practices and coherent ocean economic policies, and to ensure the preservation and management of marine and coastal ecosystems.
Furthermore, Minister Ganoo stressed on the need to empower Small Island Developing States to take advantage of the Ocean economy as part of the post-pandemic recovery efforts.
The deliberations that ensued from the Keynote Address will provide substantial inputs to the United Nations Ocean Conference scheduled for June-July 2022 in Lisbon.
Fourth Oceans Forum
The fourth Oceans Forum was a unique platform to find solutions for using trade as a tool to protect our ocean and its resources, accelerating the implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 14’s trade-related targets.
The high-level opening of the Oceans Forum tackled challenges and opportunities for the ocean economy to contribute to a sustainable and resilient post-COVID-19 recovery for all countries.
During three days, the forum convened experts and representatives from United Nations agencies, regional bodies, governments, civil society organisations, and research and scientific institutions to address several topics. They included: Emerging sustainable ocean economy sectors, such as seaweed production; transparency and fish subsidies support mechanisms; ocean economy markets and non-tariff measures reform; social sustainability of fisheries and aquaculture value chains; sustainable and resilient maritime supply chains; and trade-related aspects of marine litter and plastic pollution.
UNCTAD supports developing countries to improve their trade policies to ensure the sustainable use of the ocean, seas and coasts for economic growth and improve livelihoods and jobs, while preserving the health of the ocean ecosystem.
