OREANDA-NEWS. September 16, 2010. The Ministry of Economy presented the National Report "Millennium Development Goals. Ukraine-2010" to be made public at the 65th session of the UN General Assembly in late September.

In September 2000, Ukraine and the 189 UN member states signed the UN Millennium Declaration that defines the global Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015. In 10 years' time, the United Nations headquarters in New York will host the high-level plenary meeting of the 65th session of the UN General Assembly on MDGs to assess the progress made towards the MDGs.

To prepare for the Summit in New York, the Ministry of Economy and UN Development Programme produced the National Report "Millennium Development Goals. Ukraine-2010" based on the detailed analysis of the results towards reaching the MDGs in different areas and the new tasks for the Ukrainian parliament till 2015. The new national programme is focused mainly on reducing poverty, improving quality of education, ensuring environmental sustainability, improving maternal health, reducing child mortality, combatting HIV/AIDS and TB and ensuring gender equality.

The meeting was attended by high-ranking officials and the UN representatives including the Minister of Economy of Ukraine Vasiliy Tsushko, the Deputy Minister of Economy Irina Kryuchkova, the First Deputy Head of Administration for the President of Ukraine Irina Akimova, the UN Resident Coordinator in Ukraine Olivier Adam and many others.  The Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine for Economy Sergey Tigipko addressed the delegates with a welcome speech.

SCM Director of International and Investor Relations and Chair of the United Nations Global Compact Network in Ukraine Jock Mendoza-Wilson spoke on behalf of SCM at the National Report presentation meeting. Addressing the participants, Mr Jock Mendoza-Wilson recognized the role of business in achieving the MDGs.  

"Presenting the National Report to the public is a right step taken by the government, which bears major responsibility for implementing the "Millennium Development Goals" programme", commented Mr Jock Mendoza-Wilson. "Thanks to the advice from NGOs and businesses, the Ukrainian officials and UN representatives in Ukraine could identify the most topical issues and find the way to solve them. Now that the problems and the possible ways to tackle them have been covered in the National Report, the NGOs, government and businesses should join in to reach the MDGs".

"SCM has been upholding the principles of MDG programme and we hope that other socially responsible Ukrainian companies will follow suit", added Mr Mendoza-Wilson.