Bahrain will continue unhindered on the path of development, Prime Minister Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa has pledged.
In a statement distributed in New York after being granted the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) Award in recognition of Bahrain's achievements, the Premier said the future of the development process, spearheaded by His Majesty King Hamad, will help bring about aspired growth and prosperity to Bahrain.
"Bahrain has won international respect thanks to the big strides it has made in sustainable human development which are the result of its resolve to advance," the Prime Minister stressed.
Fruitful and constructive cooperation with the UN and its affiliated international organisations has undoubtedly proved to be valuable, he noted.
He also called upon the UN to assume its responsibility to fulfill the eight goals known as the MDGs by taking further measures to confront various challenges facing the world. He also demanded the UN summit, currently being held in New York, exert more efforts to achieve sustainable growth mainly in developing and underdeveloped countries before 2015.
"The Bahraini people and government have the right nowadays to boast about the international achievements made on various levels and which all work to ensure their continuity," he added, stressing the need to maintain the solid relations between the government and its citizens to bring about further accomplishments.
Foreign Affairs Minister Shaikh Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa received the MDG Award on behalf of the Premier at a lavish ceremony in New York on Monday.
The FM expressed delight at granting Prince Khalifa such an award, and said it was an honour for all Bahrainis and recognition of the Kingdom's achievements.
World leaders kicked off a summit yesterday to hammer out new ways to meet ambitious targets set a decade ago to cut poverty, millions of avoidable deaths and improve equality by 2015.
Shaikh Khalid joined US President Barack Obama, President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadi Nejad and others who will put rival plans to get the badly behind schedule MDGs back on track. Most experts say it will be impossible to meet any of the goals, which range from cutting the number of people in extreme poverty by half and the number of children who die before reaching five by two thirds, to fairer trade and spreading the internet to the world's poor.
© Bahrain Tribune 2010
