SG: Ladies and Gentleman,

Good afternoon.  First of all, I would like to warmly welcome the President of the World Bank, Dr. Kim Jim Yong, and I very pleased to have this opportunity to have a very close consultation between the United Nations and World Bank at this early stage of his leadership.

The United Nations and World Bank are strongest partners in addressing the peace and development agenda.  We are working together for common humanity.  In that regard, I am very happy to have such a renowned educator and expert in health and development area as a head of World Bank.  We are very happy to work together very closely. 

We have had a very good meeting today with senior advisers from [our] respective organizations participating.  We agreed that the World Bank and the United Nations will work even more closely in addressing all the global challenges, particularly in development and peace. 

We agreed that we must work harder to help Member States to achieve the  Millennium Development Goals.  We only have three years and some months left.  We agreed that, at the level of myself and President Kim, at the top level of these two organizations, we will work regularly, to raise awareness, as well as to mobilize resources, and mobilize political will to help Member States to achieve these goals. 

We also believe that the United Nations and the World Bank can play a pivotal role in realizing and establishing the sustainable development goals, as was agreed in Rio de Janeiro two months ago.  This is a top priority of the United Nations: to make this world sustainable. 

There are some other issues where we have focused our attention - that is the Sustainable Energy for All Initiative. And I’m very glad that he has accepted my invitation to co-chair with me the new advisory board of the Sustainable Energy for All Initiative. We will work very closely together to have this transformative partnership in providing energy to all the people around the world.

Another area, this expertise of his is global health.  We discussed in depth about how we can promote further Every Woman, Every Child.  Our target is to save 16 million women and children who would be dying needlessly from preventable diseases.  I really count on Dr. Kim’s leadership on that.

Last but not least, we also agreed to work more on global education.  As you may remember, I have recently appointed former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown as my Special Envoy for Global Education.  He is a renowned educator. Therefore, we can fully utilize his knowledge and ambitions.  Education is a foundation in realizing all of our challenges and I’m very happy to work with him.

On all other matters, we will very closely work together.

Again, thank you very much, Dr. Kim and President Kim, for your leadership.  And welcome to the United Nations. And you can count on the United Nations.