Memorandum of Understanding signed in Ashgabat to achieve United Nations Sustainable Development Goals

Calling for concerted action to achieve the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), IRU and the UN Office of the High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States (UN-OHRLLS) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding.
 
An important outcome of the first UN Global Conference on Sustainable Transport in Ashgabat, the signing consolidates efforts between the two organisations over a number of years to forge ahead with dedicated action.
 
Commenting at the ceremony, UN Under-Secretary-General and High Representative, Gyan Chandra Acharya, recognised the success of the UN TIR system in successfully connecting landlocked developing countries to world markets.
 
IRU Secretary General, Umberto de Pretto, said that landlocked developing countries pay transport costs that are more than twice that of coastal countries, hence the urgent and imperative need to implement tried and tested UN instruments like TIR, which facilitate and secure trade, to drive progress, prosperity and ultimately peace. He added,

“By transforming today's challenges into new trade opportunities, we can actually make landlocked countries land-linked, and go a long way to effectively implement the UN SDGs, with road transport as a key enabler."