ISLAMABAD — Pakistani Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Ahsan Iqbal called upon regional countries to jointly achieve the common goals of poverty alleviation, literacy, sustainable socio-economic development, and mitigation of climate disaster impacts.

Iqbal made the remarks here on Monday at a conference titled “Sustainable Development Conference” organized by the Sustainable Development Policy Institute, a Pakistani think-tank.

The world is passing through unusual times, and the innovative form of knowledge exchange, technology transfer, emergency response, and recovery of livelihood and economies among the nations in the Global South is of immense importance than ever, he said.

“We are among the first countries who adopted Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a national development agenda and established specialized SDGs’ support units at the federal and provincial levels,” Iqbal added while highlighting the key initiates adopted by Pakistan despite the contemporary challenges.

Pakistan offers multi-billion U.S. dollar investment opportunities in sectors aligned with the SDGs that include sectors ranging from transport and logistics, renewables and alternative energy, healthcare, education, technology and communication, and finance, according to the minister(Xinhua).