"I believe what we are looking at now is just an iceberg. Surely, we will witness more innovations in our community. We will look at hybrid cars, and low-energy lighting," he said.Rio de Janeiro (ANTARA News) - President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has expressed optimism that the world community will be able to create a sustainable future.
"Our efforts to achieve Millennium Development Goals by 2015 are facing many challenges. But regardless of these all, I remain optimistic that we can create a sustainable future," he said at a panel discussion: "Moving Towards Sustainability: Together We Must Create The Future We Want" in Riocenter, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Wednesday.
The key to the success was technology and innovations, he said.
Citing an example, he said there was no Internet nor mobile phone when the sustainable development conference was held in Rio de Janeiro 20 years ago.
"I believe what we are looking at now is just an iceberg. Surely, we will witness more innovations in our community. We will look at hybrid cars, and low-energy lighting," he said.
He noted that the world had changed very much, particularly in the economic field since the sustainable development conference was held in Rio de Janeiro 20 years ago.
"After all, we have yet to reach strong, balanced, and sustainable global economy. Admittedly, the global economy is growing at a slow, uneven and imbalanced pace. In many cases, the growth is not inclusive," he said.
The Indonesian leader expressed his concern about the imbalanced global economic growth today.
Quoting a World Bank report, he said the average per capita income of developed nations was seven times that of developing nations.
"As we all see, there has been great pressure on natural resources due to population growth. The global population has passed through the threshold of 7 billion and is moving to 9 billion before 2050. Consequently, there has been conflict over natural resources," he said.
For one or two reasons, environmental priority had not been put in the mainstream of development agenda all over the world, he said.(*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
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