Singapore has announced the launch of a new programme where it will work with partners to focus on issues of development during the United Nations Sustainable Development Summit 2015.

Speaking at the summit on Sunday (Sept 27), Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Vivian Balakrishnan said a factor in Singapore's sustainable development journey is collaborative partnerships and "as a responsible global citizen, Singapore will continue to give back to the international community".

This year, the summit adopts the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development - a long-term global development framework with a set of 17 goals.

These goals - to be achieved by 2030 - cover areas such as poverty elimination, water and sanitation and climate change.

Under the new Sustainable Development Programme, Singapore will work with partners to offer leadership programmes and programmes on sustainable cities and urbanisation, as well as provide training and consultancy in the area of water and sanitation.

The programme comes under the Singapore Cooperation Programme, which started in 1992.

Raising the topic of the transboundary haze in South-east Asia, Dr Balakrishnan said it is "directly linked to the 2030 Agenda", and many of such problems cannot be addressed unilaterally.

"We need closer regional and international cooperation to apply legal and commercial pressure in order to prevent errant companies from profiting from unsustainable land and forest clearing," he said.