| The Statement of Ambassador Tang Guoqiang on the 34th IDB of UNIDO |
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| Monday,May 19,2008 Posted: 23:43 BJT(43 GMT) Permanent Mission of China to UNIDO |
34th session of IDB
Item 3: annual report for 2007
And
Item 4: implementation of the medium-term program framework 2008-2011
Statement by Chinese delegation
14.05.2008
Mr. president,
My delegation congratulates you on your election as president of the current session of IDB, confident that under your leadership the session will achieve positive results. My delegation also thanks the outgoing president for his important contribution to the last session.
My delegation has carefully studied the annual report for 2007 by the DG and related documents, and appreciates and positively evaluates the work done by the DG in UNIDO reform and development since he became UNIDO director-general.
We are pleased to note that UNIDO has achieved considerable results in further improving efficiency, implementing results-based management, raising UNIDO’s visibility and comparative advantage, project delivery and resource mobilization, regional cooperation and performance management as well as participation in the UN reform process and strengthening inter-agency coordination, among others. My delegation positively evaluates the informative summary and clear thinking in the report and encourages UNIDO to further strengthen performance management, place emphasis on meeting the priority needs of the developing countries while at the same time continuously improving its internal processes, improving its resource mobilization capacity, and building on and expanding its financial resources.
My delegation attaches great importance to the implementation of the MTPF 2008-2011 and commends UNIDO for its achievements in promoting south-south cooperation. We see an irreplaceable role for UNIDO in this area and hope to see UNIDO open more channels of resources and explore new ideas for promoting south-south cooperation. My delegation would like to take this opportunity to stress that a) resource mobilization and expansion into new areas to better serve developing countries and countries with economies in transition remain UNIDO’s primary tasks; b) implementation of south-south cooperation requires sufficient institutional and financial guarantees and smooth implementation of relevant programs and strategies; and c) UNIDO, in its cooperation with other agencies, should maintain its characteristics and advantages so as to contribute more effectively to sustainable industrial development and poverty reduction efforts in developing countries.
In recent years, cooperation between China and UNIDO has made significant headway. UNIDO has set up in China a number of regional and international research and training centres. While strengthening their own research and training capabilities, these centres have trained, through training courses and seminars, large numbers of technical and managerial personnel for other developing countries, meeting their needs of national development. Currently China is supporting the Light up Africa project and prepared to cooperate with UNIDO and African countries in developing small hydro-power energy. Implementation of the project is both a follow-up to the outcome of the Summit of the Forum on China-African Cooperation (FOCAC) and a useful attempt to advance south-south cooperation between China and Africa within the UN framework and bring benefits to the African people by using more efficient and comprehensive modalities of aid.
We are pleased to note that thanks to the efforts of various parties, the China south-south industrial cooperation centre will be up and running soon. We are confident that the centre will provide a platform for further strengthening cooperation between China and other developing countries through multilateral channels. We wish to reiterate here that China has always attached great importance to and strongly supported south-south development cooperation, and made the strengthening of friendly cooperation with developing countries a cornerstone of its foreign policy.
My delegation commends the DG for the concern he has shown for the global food crisis and concurs with G-77’s non-paper on this issue. It is our view that this issue has a close bearing on the numerous developing countries and that UNIDO should step up technical assistance in food processing to the developing countries within its areas of work. A country with a population of 1.3 billion people, China has always attached great importance to and relied on its own efforts in meeting its domestic demand for food. For the Chinese government, achieving national food security and guaranteeing domestic food supply has always been a primary task. That China has been able to feed one fifth of the world’s population by relying on its efforts is in and of itself China’s greatest contribution to the world.
My delegation supports UNIDO’s active participation in the GEF. We hope that UNIDO will continue its efforts to meet the financial criteria and requirements of the GEF council by intensifying its own reform so as to obtain a greater share of resources from the GEF. My delegation thanks UNIDO for its years of work in promoting environmental protection in China. As the largest developing country, China is determined to address the huge challenge of environmental governance by stepping up its own efforts. We hope to be able to increase our cooperation with UNIDO and GEF, continuously improve our environmental protection capacity and contribute to improving the environment in China and the world as a whole.
Thank you, Mr. president.
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