At 3:10 am EST, participants of the U.N. Global Compact Leaders Summit watched the “ASEAN Closing Keynote and Vote of Thanks”.

The closing comments were initiated by Gita Sabharwal, Office of the United Nations Resident Coordinator.

“I’m glad to see the UN Global Compact launched its SME toolkit to mainstream sustainability, and I’m confident that local networks in ASEAN would make very good use of it. We also need for the progress on social sustainability and gender equality in the private sector,” she says, speaking to business diversity and sustainability.

Sabharwal also spoke to the dangers of plastic pollution and the use of chemical fingerprinting to determine sources of pollution. 

In closing she thanked presenters and partners.

“Thank you again to the organizers for bringing together the key stakeholders, including the escap sustainable business network and Global Compact. I look forward to building on these discussions.”

On that note Sabharwal passed the spotlight to Thanyaporn Krichtitayawuth, Executive Director, Global Compact Network Thailand, and the host for the evening. 

Krichtitayawuth also offered thanks to the many contributors of the summit.

“I wish to comment on business leaders that all of you have a passion for putting together this event,” she says.

“We can enable the change together. Thank you for being a key part of our leaders summit today.”

The ASEAN portion of the summit ended with a final farewell from Nuttapong Namsirikul, Master of Ceremonies. 

“We must act while there is still time. I believe that many of you who walk away from the event today with a mission and a vision and also have pledged to uniting business for a better world. Thank you very much once again, and it has been an honor to be your host,” Namsirikul remarked.