KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 4 — Malaysia is among the 189 United Nations (UN) member countries to successfully meet all the eight targets in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) set 13 years ago during the new millennia.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak (picture) said according to the targets, all the goals of the MDGs must be achieved before 2015. 

He said Malaysia had done remarkably well, but he still believed that the development agenda under the MDGs needed a sustained commitment.

“The MDGs fell short of integrating the economic, social and environmental aspects of sustainable development as envisaged in the Millennium Declaration.

“The needs to balance environmental protection and development were not properly brought together,” he said in his keynote address at the Forum On Biodiversity and Development Post 2015, organized by the Malaysian Industry Government Group for High Technology (MIGHT) from today until November 6.

The MDG consists of eight set of global development goals to put an end towards extreme poverty, hunger, disease and to achieve universal primary education, to promote gender equality, reduce child mortality rates, to ensure environmental sustainability and to develop a global partnership for development.

Najib said Malaysia would continue refining the MDGs and the country was ready to achieve new goals for post-2015 period that was set by the UN in 2012 — the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).

He said over the past three decades, Malaysia economy had increased more than a hundredfold, as measured by the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) yardstick averaging nearly seven per cent growth per year.

Poverty rates have fallen from 49 per cent to less than four per cent, per capita GDP has also risen from USD370 to more than USD9,000 today, he said.

“My main concern as prime minister is still to ensure whatever we do, we have the people’s interest as the utmost priority. The government is committed to the creation of jobs, the pursuit of sustainable development and to ensuring the wellbeing of the people,” he said. 

Najib also noted that major geo-political differences had evolved in recent decades, involving far greater global interconnections and deepening both opportunities and risk.

In particular, he pointed to the risk posed by climate change.

“The proof of increasing global warming, the limitations of quick solutions to guard against climate change and variability, the need to ensure in embracing solutions pose an important question before us.

“I am happy to note that during the Earth Summit in Rio 20 years ago, we pledged to the world to keep at least 50 per cent of our country under forest and tree covers in perpetuity. Today, our green cover is at 74 per cent and 56.4 per cent of our landmass is forested - a strong signal to the world of how Malaysia walks the talk,” he said.

In Malaysia, he said the government and private sectors looked for ways to achieve the twin objectives of development and environmental protection while realising that it was a difficult and delicate equilibrium to achieve.

“After all, if we look around the world, many high-income countries achieved prosperity at the expense of the environment, not in concert with it. Nevertheless, we take lessons from the experience of others, and strike that delicate balance between development and environmental conservation, we must,” he said. — Bernama