Vienna Chapter
Mr. President,
On behalf of the Group of 77 and China, I have the honor to convey to
you, Excellency, our pleasure in seeing you chairing the work of the 24th
session of the Industrial Development Board. At the same time, I would
also like to thank your predecessor Ambassador Ortiz for the excellent
manner in which he guided the work as well as the members of the Bureau of
the last IDB.
We also wish to express our appreciation to the Secretariat for the
manner in which they have conducted their responsibility, under the wise
leadership of the Director-General Mr. Carlos Magariños. We commend
the Secretariat for the preparation of the documents.
The Group of 77 and China wishes to reaffirm its commitment to the
ideals and mandate of UNIDO and urges all Member States to continue to
render their necessary support to enable UNIDO to promote sustainable
industrialization of developing countries. This is essential to prevent
the continued marginalization of developing countries in the process of
globalization.
The Group of 77 and China has studied the annual report of the
Director-General for 2000 on the activities of the Organization stated in
the IDB.24/2 and recognizes that much of UNIDO's work in 2000, consisted
of laying the foundations for a structured sustainable development process
through a great number of activities to fulfill both its global forum and
technical cooperation delivery functions.
While recognizing the relevance of the Global Forum activities, the
Group of 77 and China is of the view that these activities should result
in strengthening and improving the Technical Cooperation programme. It is
of course important to follow the new trends in the development of latest
technologies and translate them into practical programmes of Technical
Cooperation in order to built industrial capacity in developing countries.
The Group is still convinced that the industrialization strategy
developed through the integrated programmes constitutes one of the best
means to ensure a sustainable industrial development of developing
countries and to alleviate poverty and ensure productive employment.
The Group of 77 and China takes note with concern of the decrease of
technical cooperation during 2000 and would like to call upon all Member
States to make available more voluntary contributions to implement
technical cooperation activities. The Group is also convinced that
administrative cost could be reduced without affecting effectiveness and
efficiency of the programmes. In that regard, the Group would like to
request the Secretariat to seek out innovative ways to reduce such costs.
The Group of 77 and China expresses once again its concern over the
declining level of the project implementation for the year of 2000. Only
82% of the approved projects were implemented in the year 2000 compared to
90% in 1999. The Group urges the donors and Member States to provide more
resources and calls upon the Secretariat to make all endeavors to enhance
the level of implementation.
The Group also has taken note of the activities undertaken by UNIDO
during 2000 for investment and technology promotion. It is a positive
endeavor which needs to be further strengthened.
The programme should be made more widespread so that as many
developing countries as possible may benefit from it. The Secretariat may
also clarify the criteria for organizing Country Promotion Presentations
and Investment and Technology Promotion Offices' Delegate Programmes in
order to ensure better understanding of the procedure and optimizing its
utility by the members.
The Group of 77 and China has taken note of the Report of the Programme
and Budget Committee on the work of its seventeenth session. And the Group
would like to reiterate its support to all draft decisions recommended by
the Committee to the Industrial Development Board.
In this connection, the Group would also like to call upon all Member
States to adopt the draft decision recommended by the Committee in its
Conclusion 2001/3 on the Programme and Budget for the biennium 2002-2003.
The Group is convinced that in order to address the challenge of
sustainable industrial development, a clear and unconditional commitment
of all Members States is indispensable.
On the issue of the scale of assessments for the apportionment of the
regular budget expenses, the Group wishes to emphasize its view that it is
imperative to maintain the scale of assessment at its current level with
the present maximum ceiling of 25%, in order to stabilize and consolidate
the financial situation of UNIDO.
The Group of 77 and China is pleased to note that the efforts to
mobilize funds for Integrated Programmes are showing positive results, and
consequently there has been a noteworthy increase in the availability of
funds in the year 2000. The annual funds mobilization for the Integrated
Programmes increased from $ 23.7 million in 1999 to $ 32.4 million in
2000. In the short term, there is a positive trend in mobilization of
funds, but still there is no scope for complacency. So far 43 Integrated
Programmes have been developed with a total volume of required funds of
about $ 256 million, but the total funds available amounted at presence
only $ 65 million, and therefore, a lot of work needs to be done in the
area of funds mobilization. Alternative sources of funding must be sought
in particular from multilateral and regional financial agencies.
The Group has also noted with interest that the net project and
programme approvals together with future payments under Trust Fund
agreements amounted to $ 87.8 million in the year 2000. We take this
opportunity express our appreciation for the support extended by bilateral
and other donors in financing the Integrated Programmes. It is, however,
unfortunate that funding from the UNDP Core Fund continues to decrease
and, as a result, the new approvals from this source amounted to only $4.6
million in the year 2000. It is, however, a matter of satisfaction that
funding from the GEF as well as the multilateral fund from the Montreal
Protocol continues to show an upward trend. We would like to encourage the
Director General to continue his efforts to secure more funds from the GEF
and the Montreal Protocol and also to increase the rate of programme
delivery.
The Group of 77 and China takes note with satisfaction of the document
IDB.24/12 regarding the recent progress on the implementation of the
Resolution GC.8/Res.2 on Global Environmental Facility.
The Group is convinced that in this particular moment, when financial
resources are limited, UNIDO should continue enhancing its potential for
technical cooperation in environment-related activities, strengthening the
existing working relationship with other international organizations such
as the Global Environmental Facility and the Montreal Protocol etc.
Regarding item 8, document IDB.24/15, the Group considers with interest
the issues related to Field Representation and recalls the importance of
strengthening field representation by decentralizing functions and
providing adequate financial resources to enhance activities at both
country and regional level.
The Group also has followed with interest the first pilot project of
effective decentralization and would like to encourage the Secretariat to
increase the number of these pilot projects in different geographical
areas for an identification of all possible problems faced with the view
to develop a more effective and balanced plan of decentralization.
The Group recalls that the establishment of effective and
well-staffed field offices is crucial for supporting our efforts towards
the industrialization of our economies and would like to invite the
Secretariat to assess, in consultation with Member States, the current
Field Representation scheme in order to enhance its effectiveness.
Finally, the Group wishes to appeal to donor countries to extend
assistance to support UNIDO in further enhancing field representation.
The Group has examined with interest document IDB.24/16 on the
industrialization of the least developed countries and wishes to reiterate
its acknowledgment that the current globalization process poses a risk of
marginalization to a number of developing countries and reiterate the
conviction of the significant role that sustainable industrial development
can play in reaching the goal set in the United Nations Millennium
Declaration, highlighted in the document mentioned above.
The Group commends the effective participation made by the
Secretariat during the LDC III in May 2001 and in its preparation, and
wishes that UNIDO continues the follow-up process in this mandate and its
deliverables in order to contribute to poverty alleviation.
Regarding the country-specific activities, the Group notes that, in
spite of the decline of the total technical cooperation delivery to the
LDCs in 2000, by an amount of $2.4 million compared to 1999, the increase
of donor funds for technical cooperation in LDCs, by an amount of $2.3
million compared to March 1999, will permit at least to maintain the level
of delivery in 2001.
The Group calls upon the Director-General to continue his efforts and
contacts in order to increase technical delivery to LDCs.
The Group believes in the important and pivotal role played by the
Secretariat's professional posts in developing and advancing the goals of
the Organization. In this regard, the Group would call upon the
Secretariat to exert all efforts towards ensuring equitable geographical
distribution of the professional staff in the UNIDO Secretariat.
The Group also requests the Secretariat to exert efforts to achieve a
greater gender balance, especially among the professional staff.
In addition, the Group recommends to the Secretariat to distribute
vacancy announcements to the Member States at least two months before the
application deadline. This will give Member States a reasonable period of
time to find an appropriate candidate for the position.
The Group has taken note of the document IDB 24/18 based on General
Assembly Resolution 50/233, which established the principle that the
impact of the Joint Inspection Unit on the cost effectiveness of
activities within the UN System, is a shared responsiblity of the Member
States, the Unit and the Secretariat.
At the same time the Group agrees to the establishment of the System
of the follow-up to the approved JIU reports, through Policy Making
Organs. The Group is of the opinion that a mechanism should also be
established in order that Member States may have a role in the
implementation of the JIU report.
Thank you, Mr. President.
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