Brnjac attends high-level forum on sustainable development in New York

Croatia's Minister of Tourism and Sport, Nikolina Brnjac, has presented the second Voluntary National Review of the implementation of the 2030 UN Sustainable Development Agenda at the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development in New York, expressing satisfaction that Croatia is among the top 10 EU performers.

The second Voluntary National Review presents Croatia's progress in implementing all 17 sustainable goals through 38 indicators tracking progress in their implementation, and identifies challenges and areas for possible improvement, the Ministry of Tourism and Sport said on Wednesday.

Compared with 2019, evident progress has been made in achieving all sustainable development goals, but in some areas the progress has been slow as a result of a number of crises in the past period, Brnjac said.

She added that Croatia is systematically integrating the implementation of UN sustainable development goals into national policies through strategic planning and the basic strategic document - the 2030 National Development Strategy.

The Global Sustainable Development Report 2023 ranked Croatia 12th among 166 countries, up from 23rd last year. Croatia has made progress on 14 sustainable development goals, stagnating on one and slightly underperforming on two, the minister said.

Brnjac noted that in its progress report on Croatia, the European Commission has found that Croatia is making timely progress in achieving nearly all sustainable development goals, performing above the EU average on eight goals. 

This is important because as many as nine EU member states are among the top 10 performers for 2023, and I am very pleased that Croatia, as the youngest member state, which celebrated the 10th anniversary of its EU membership this month, ranks 10th among the EU member states in the Global Sustainable Development Report, Brnjac said.

She said that the Croatian government is working on three development priorities - digital transformation, demographic revitalisation, and decarbonisation, or the green transition.

Brnjac expressed satisfaction that Croatia scored excellent results on goals related to reducing poverty and social exclusion, which is in line with the basic goal of the UN Agenda - leaving no one behind.

Speaking of Croatia's activities at the UN, she said that this year Croatia chairs the Peacebuilding Commission and will make a quality contribution.

The Ministry of Tourism and Sport, in cooperation with the World Tourism Organisation, organised a high-level round table called "Economic, Social and Environmental Sustainability in Tourism". Attending were the tourism ministers of India, Jamaica and Spain as well as representatives of the business and academic communities. Brnjac presented the activities of the government in the tourism sector contributing to achievement of sustainable development goals, with special emphasis on the Tourism Act.

The Croatian minister also attended a panel dedicated to Social Development Goal 11, entitled "SDG 11 and interlinkages with other SDGs –Sustainable cities and communities", and a discussion called “Building momentum towards the SDG Summit".

(Hina) 

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