Singapore, 2014

I wish to convey our congratulations to Mr. Sam Kahamba Kutesa on

his election as President of the General Assembly at its

sixty-ninth session. We wish him success in the coming

year.

We are not living in the worst of times, but they

are not the best of times either. Standards of living are

far higher for more of the human race than ever before.

But we face global crises of several types: internal

and cross-border conflicts, epidemics, disasters both

natural and man-made, climate change and international

crime. We are facing grave threats from terrorism and

extremism. The latest manifestation is the Islamic

State in Iraq and the Sham (ISIS). It is brutal and

cruel and a travesty of all that religion stands for. Its

unspeakable acts of cruelty, including abductions and

brutal murders of civilians, constitute crimes against

humanity. Singapore condemns those terrorist actions

in the strongest possible terms. ISIS will continue to

target those who do not conform to its extremist agenda.

The threat of such terrorism and radical ideology

is not confined to the Middle East. It affects the whole

world. An estimated 15,000 foreigners from at least

80 countries, including from South-East Asia, have

travelled to Syria and Iraq to fight. That fact that ISIS

can attract so many foreign fighters highlights the

need for a comprehensive strategy to counter them. In

addition to military and intelligence efforts, we must

also combat the radical ideology used to recruit foreign

fighters, which fuels their extremist agenda.

Singapore firmly supports all international and

regional cooperation efforts. We welcome the strong

leadership of the United States, in particular in the

formation of the international coalition to combat the

ISIS threat. We also welcome the Jeddah Declaration

by Arab countries to stand united against ISIS. Security

Council resolution 2178 (2014), on foreign terrorist

fighters, which Singapore co-sponsored, is an important

step to combat global terrorism and will be critical to

cutting off financial and material support for ISIS and

preventing the movement of foreign terrorist fighters.

No country can insulate itself from those problems.

We need to combat them at all levels. Fair economic

development, good governance and political and social

stability will be critical in increasing a country’s

resilience against those threats.

The President’s choice of the theme “Delivering

on and implementing a transformative post-2015

development agenda” for this year’s session and his

emphasis on a comprehensive, action-oriented post-2015

development agenda are particularly timely. Singapore

commends the work of the Open Working Group on

Sustainable Development Goals and looks forward to

the Secretary-General’s report of its recommendations.

We also welcome the contributions of major

forums, such as the Third International Conference on

Small Island Developing States (SIDS), recently held

in Samoa. Singapore had the privilege of co-chairing

the preparatory committee for that forum with New

Zealand. It is important that the views and concerns

of small States be properly factored into the post-2015

development agenda. The Millennium Development

Goals (MDGs) were successful due to the pragmatic,

outcome-based and quantifiable approach to the

Targets. We hope that same approach will be taken in

respect of the post-2015 development agenda. Those

MDGs that were not fully achieved should be included

as an intrinsic part of the post-2015 agenda.

Regarding the principles for sustainable development,

Singapore is participating actively in the discussions

for the post-2015 period, focusing on those areas where

we can contribute — key principles that were critical

to our development path and might be relevant to other

developing countries.

First is the principle of honest and competent

government. Corruption is a drag on development and

an intrinsic source of social instability. Fighting it

needs political will, strong leadership and unceasing

vigilance from the whole society.

Secondly, rule of law is integral to sustainable

development. Governments need sound and effective

institutions. Those institutions, including the civil

service, the judiciary and law enforcement agencies,

must be built on core principles of equal justice and

meritocracy, regardless of ethnicity, religion or gender.

Social capital — the trust that people have in one

another, their leaders and the system — is as necessary

to sustainable development as financial capital.

The third principle is that economic and social

policy must be pragmatic, not dogmatic. Singapore

does not advocate any standard model of government

or economic structure. The only model is to work with

what you have within the context of a country’s culture

and resources, prudently and for the benefit of the

people. Policies have to be judged by their outcomes,

not according to ideological content. Both consistent

attention and responsive implementation are necessary

to achieve long-term goals. We will put those ideas

forward during the discussion.

Since the urban centres of small States tend to have

disproportionately large social, political and economic

weight in the country, a dysfunctional urban centre can

have a much greater negative effect on a small country

than on a big one. Today, slightly more than half of the

world’s population live in cities. By 2050, that will go

up to 70 per cent. Most of that growth will take place

in Africa, Asia and Latin America. As noted on page

17 of the report of the High-level Panel of Eminent

Persons on the Post-2015 Development Agenda, cities

are where the battle for sustainable development

will be won or lost. Mismanaged urbanization can

intensify inequalities. Asia is already home to 61 per

cent of the world’s slum dwellers, and Africa is home

to about 26 per cent. The Organization for Economic

Cooperation and Development has predicted that by

2030, 2 billion people could live in urban poverty. They

will be at risk from overcrowding, epidemics, crime

and pollution.

Yet, urbanization has in fact been significant

in the progress towards achievement of the MDGs,

especially in reducing poverty. Successful cities bring

up their rural hinterlands. Today, cities account for

over 80 per cent of global gross domestic product. The

outcome document of the United Nations Conference

on Sustainable Development (resolution 66/288, annex)

itself recognizes that well-planned cities promote

economically, socially and environmentally sustainable

societies. They are engines for growth and are more

resource-efficient than rural societies.

The challenge is therefore really to manage

urbanization well. Singapore has been contributing to the

discussions on sustainable urbanization as co-chair of

the Group of Friends on Sustainable Cities. Singapore’s

Centre for Liveable Cities was established in 2008 to

distil, create and share knowledge on sustainable cities.

It has developed a Liveability Framework as a tool to

analyse what a sustainable city would actually entail

and help countries define the policies they need to

achieve that goal. To us, a sustainable city means having

a competitive economy, environmental sustainability

and a high quality of life for all inhabitants, rich and

poor alike. We hope that the Liveability Framework can

be incorporated as part of discussions for the United

Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban

Development — Habitat III — in 2016.

In the area of water and sanitation, last year

Singapore submitted resolution 67/291 to the General

Assembly to designate 19 November as World Toilet

Day in the context of Sanitation for All. This year, we

will observe that Day together with relevant United

Nations agencies and civil society organizations by

focusing on the serious problems faced by women and

girls who lack basic sanitation access. That issue needs

greater attention than it has received so far.

What is the way forward? Once the post-2015

development agenda has been agreed, countries will

need to consider implementation. South-South, North-

South and triangular cooperation in capacity-building

and sharing experiences are important parts of the way

forward. In our early years, Singapore benefited from

the expert advice of specialized agencies, international

organizations and developed countries. In 1992, we set

up the Singapore Cooperation Programme to share our

development experience, the successes and the failures

alike, with other developing countries. The Programme

is designed to build capacity in fields that could

be of interest to countries, in the hope that that will

smooth their developmental path. Recently, at the third

Small Island Developing States Conference in Samoa,

Singapore launched a dedicated package for SIDS.

Singapore supports the universal and inclusive

approach to the post-2015 development agenda. Each

society must draw its own lessons from its own

experiences and find solutions according to its national

circumstances. Naturally, there will be differences of

opinion, but we must not lose sight of the ultimate goal

of ending extreme poverty in our lifetimes. With the

MDGs, we managed to halve the number of people

living below the poverty line, and there is real hope

that we can do even better.

Let us all work together to ensure that by the

seventieth anniversary of the inception of the United

Nations, in 2015, we can unite around a clear vision

of how to provide our future generations the future we

want.