00:00We are like an unseen hand. We do work that ordinarily people don't recognize.
00:06We're doing things like behind the cameras.
00:21My name is Madhya Bethany Charlotte Lobby.
00:24I am 52 years old. I am the High Commissioner of South Africa in Singapore.
00:28I've been in Singapore since June 2022.
00:32My work has five pillars.
00:34First is promoting and strengthening bilateral ties between South Africa and Singapore.
00:40Second one is to strengthen trade between South Africa and Singapore.
00:45The third one is to promote investment in Singapore so that Singapore companies can invest in the South African economy.
00:54The fourth one is to promote tourism.
00:57And the last one is to promote people-to-people relations where we promote not only economic diplomacy but also cultural diplomacy.
01:05The link between what we do and sustainable development is anchored by SDG number 17, that of partnerships.
01:15Because the success of our work is based on us building strong partnerships between our countries of accreditation and our countries.
01:23But also to build partnerships between the private sector in South Africa and Singapore.
01:29Every year I organize the South Africa Focus Week in Singapore.
01:33Through the South Africa Focus Week, we introduce South African companies to opportunities in Singapore.
01:40We also use that to do business matching and business networking.
01:45And I am very proud of this because for the past two years we've had younger people coming to Singapore to learn about Singapore's success story.
01:57But also to meet with other younger people who are raised differently from them and see how they can promote networking,
02:05how they can collaborate with the organizations in Singapore.
02:09SDG number 17 carries weight for all of us because it is a reminder for us to partner with each other to achieve the rest of the SDGs.
02:21If you look at the strengths of different countries, you will realize that others are doing good or well in certain SDGs and not doing well in other SDGs.
02:30And I believe we can utilize our participation in the UN to try and learn best practices.
02:40It will be multilateral engagements but also bilateral.
02:43I also believe that we can make sure that our universities share knowledge and share work around the different innovations that they are promoting.
02:57And this is one of the things that I believe as part of quality education, we can promote as ambassadors and ensure that there is some collaboration between different institutions.
03:11In order for humanity to survive, we need each other.
03:15And I believe that as ambassadors, as high commissioners placed all over the world, we can play a significant role in making sure that our countries come together.
03:24No country can achieve sustainable development alone because we have neighbors.
03:30We have neighbors, even if Singapore can achieve most of the SDGs.
03:36If Malaysia and Indonesia are not achieving, it is still a problem for Singapore because our growth, we must bring everyone and leave no one behind.
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