Opening Remarks by Ms. Beate Trankmann at the UNDP SDG Innovation Pilot Project (Shenzhen Longhua) Launch Ceremony

August 13, 2024

text — UNDP Resident Representative in China, Beate Trankmann, delivered opening remarks at the launch ceremony of the UNDP SDG Innovation Pilot Project in Longhua, Shenzhen.

尊敬的罗副市长 (LUO Huanghao, Vice-Mayor, Shenzhen Government）

曹 (赛先) 主任 (CAO Saixian, Head of Shenzhen Municipal Foreign Affairs)

王(卫) 书记 (WANG Wei, Secretary of the CPC Shenzhen Longhua District Committee)

代 (大江) 副书记 (DAI Dajiang, Deputy Secretary of Party Affairs Committee and Secretary of Discipline Inspection Commitee of CICETE)

马 (伟华) 行长 (Chairman Ma Weihua)

女士们先生们，大家早上好。欢迎大家来到深圳龙华参加项目的启动仪式，也很高兴见到热情的各位，让我深深地感到“来了就是深圳人”。

(Welcome to the launch of UNDP’s SDG Innovation Pilot Project here in Longhua, Shenzhen!)

I am delighted to be back in Shenzhen.

Our cooperation goes back decades. In 1980, UNDP China supported an overseas study tour related to trade and foreign investment with a focus on Special Economic Zones. The Chinese delegation at the time was led by the then Vice Minister of the Administrative Commission for Foreign Investment and subsequent President of China, HE the late Jiang Zemin. This informed the design of China’s first SEZ - established right here in Shenzhen[1].

Since then, UNDP has accompanied Shenzhen on its sustainable development journey[2] including by facilitating a joint assessment of the city’s SDG progress in 2021.

Today is a special chance to renew our long-standing partnership and propel it into the future, with the launch of the Longhua Innovation Lab in Shenzhen.

We need innovation driven sustainable development breakthroughs more urgently than ever. Just six years from the 2030 deadline to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for ending poverty and protecting our planet, progress is dangerously slow.

Just 17% of SDGs are on track, while over a third have stalled or regressed.[3] In the Asia-Pacific, it will take us until 2065 to achieve them. Interconnected challenges – including a cost-of-living crisis, climate-disasters and conflicts – are exacerbating inequality and environmental destruction. And with public budgets stretched after COVID-19, fiscal space for SDG investments is lagging.

While cities account for most of our energy consumption, and the bulk of greenhouse gas emissions [4], coastal cities, like Shenzhen, are heavily impacted by climate change and vulnerable to storm surges[5] and rising sea levels[6]. But cities also offer unparralelled opportunities with the talent, investments and ideas they attract.

"We need innovation driven sustainable development breakthroughs more urgently than ever. Just six years from the 2030 deadline to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for ending poverty and protecting our planet, progress is dangerously slow."

The Longhua lab will act as a testing ground for cutting-edge solutions to advance sustainable development in a mega-city context.

The aim is to support Shenzhen’s role as one of 11 State Council designated SDG Demonstration Zones – with the Longhua lab being the first of its kind.

It will explore new ways of advancing the digital economy, managing natural resources for effective environmental protection, along with modernizing urban governance. This will include experimenting with new technological solutions to meet the SDGs in cities, generating effective, replicable and scalable sustainable development models and developing bankable investment pipelines.

Our collaboration will focus on three key areas:

Firstly, incorporating sustainable development ideas into Longhua’s development vision and strategy, encouraging pathways towards green, inclusive development.

Secondly, connecting with the UNDP Accelerator Lab Network spanning over 130 countries and regions, and with our policy hubs and innovation centres in Singapore, Seoul, Istanbul, Oslo so that Longhua can both benefit but also contribute to our global innovation ecosystem.

Indeed, I am delighted to welcome my colleague Joe Hooper who heads our Singapore Centre and who has kindly taken the time to join us today to deliver a session on exchanging global experiences to innovate for sustainable urban development.

Finally, to ensure we cultivate megacities that include everyone, we aim to create platforms for networking and mutual-learning targeting in particular women and youth led MSMEs, entrepreneurs and innovators in Longhua to become SDG change-makers in their city.

In closing, I would like to thank the China International Center for Economic and Technical Exchange (CICETE), the Foreign Affairs Office of Shenzhen and Longhua District Government, for co-hosting today’s launch with us. I also thank the Shenzhen Foundation for International Exchange and Cooperation, and Longhua International Cooperation Center (LICC), for your valuable contributions.

Congratulations to you all on this momentous launch! I wish the Longhua Lab every success in innovating towards a brighter future – for cities, and for life on earth everywhere. Thank you!

[1] Source: 1979 – 2019 Our 40 Year Journey United Nations Development Programme in China (UNDP, 2019). Url: https://www.undp.org/sites/g/files/zskgke326/files/migration/cn/40-Years-Album-EN-Final.pdf
[2] Source: Shenzhen Sustainable Development Report 2021 (UNDP/Research Institute for Eco-Civilization, Chinese Academy of Social Science/Asian Development Bank, 2021)
[3] https://www.un.org/africarenewal/magazine/june-2024/2024-sdg-report-highlights-stalled-progress-and-growing-inequities-2030-deadline#:~:text=The%20SDGs%20promise%20remains%20unfulfilled,third%20stalled%20or%20even%20regressed.
[4] Source: World Bank Group Climate Change Action Plan 2021 – 2025 (World Bank, 2021). Url: https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstreams/19f8b285-7c5b-5312-8acd-d9628bac9e8e/download
[5] Source: Investigating Storm Surge and Flooding in Shenzhen City, China (Peng Bai et al, 2023)
[6] Source: Record rise in China’s sea levels threatens coastal cities like Shanghai (Nectar Gan, CNN, 2023). Url: https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/13/china/china-sea-level-record-high-2022-climate-intl-hnk/index.html