“Book Donation by the Republic of Singapore”

Ambassador Foo,
Mr. Pisano,
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

It’s always a pleasure to come to the UN Library Geneva and doubly-so when I have the chance to share my enthusiasm for this fine institution with the Member States we serve. We are gathered here today to thank the Republic of Singapore and Ambassador Foo for the generous gift of 37 books to the Library. Covering everything from Singaporean history and economics to the city-state’s education policies, your generous donation will help this knowledge hub in its effort better serve the international community.

We all stand to benefit from learning about the Singaporean experience as we work collectively to bring into fruition the vision of the Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development. An island-state of 719 sq. km with no natural resources, Singapore has nevertheless managed to grow into a global hub, whose more than five million people benefit from one of the highest standards of living in the world. Through initiatives like the “Smart Nation” programme and the “Sustainable Singapore Blueprint 2015”, the Singaporean government aims to draw on frontier technologies like “big data” and autonomous vehicles to build a smart city and a green economy. With the global population set to reach 9.5 billion by 2050, of which two-thirds will live in urban areas, interest in the Singaporean story will continue to grow.

And the UN Library Geneva is certainly a prime platform to convey this story to the world. While other prestigious libraries may have larger catalogues, no other institution shares its mandate: to serve as an instrument of international understanding. In other words, to share knowledge and best practices among states and their people. To that end, the Library boasts resources in over 130 languages. The scale of its operations, range of its services and the importance of its collection are without equal in the UN System. The value of knowledge, however, is in its sharing both here in Geneva and around the world. To that end, the UN Library Geneva created its Sustainable Development Research Guide. This ground-breaking platform mobilizes the unprecedented amount of knowledge accumulated by the United Nations System over more than 70 years in an online format and classified by SDGs. The scale and quality of the information made available to the public is simply staggering. Just for SDG 3 – Good Health and Well-Being – the Library provides access to nearly 50 million documents to those working on the frontlines of SDG implementation. The Library is also a core element of the UN Knowledge Network, a global knowledge sharing platform.

In its commitment to exchange, openness and collaboration, the Library reflects the values found in International Geneva. Our host city is a veritable laboratory, where the proximity of actors fosters partnerships, deep institutional knowledge is shared and parties are willing to experiment, to sometimes fail, but ultimately to make breakthroughs. These qualities make it the ideal hub for collaboration on the pressing issues of today and tomorrow, including the Sustainable Development Goals. I know that Singapore will continue to in the years to come to play an outsize role in this exchange.

Thank you.