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27 Mar - 2 April
UNIDOScope 2005 CONTENTS:
Ecuador Minister of Trade and Industry praises UNIDO work and honours Director- General
Vienna, Austria, 14 March 2005
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Ecuador's Minister of External Trade, Industrialization, Fisheries and Competitiveness, Ivonne Baki, met UNIDO Director-General Carlos Magariños in Vienna, on Monday 14 March to discuss UNIDO's activities in Ecuador. Ricardo Estrada, the Executive President of the Corporation for the Promotion of Exports and Investment (CORPEI - Corporación de Promoción de Exportaciones e Inversiones) and the Permanent Representative of Ecuador to UNIDO, Byron Morejón Almeida, were also present at the meeting.
Minister Baki pointed to the important role of UNIDO in helping to promote global sustainable development, and the great help UNIDO has given to Ecuador. The minister also expressed her appreciation for the appointment of a high-level national official to take charge of UNIDO’s activities in Ecuador within the framework of the recent cooperation agreement between UNIDO and UNDP (see UNIDOScope 3 - 9 Oct. 2004).
During the meeting, the UNIDO Director-General said the success of UNIDO’s ongoing programme in Ecuador was such that it could serve as an example for other regions of the world. The Director-General assured the Minister and her colleagues that UNIDO was fully committed in its support for this programme, which aims to strengthen industrial competitiveness and export capacity and encourage investment in Ecuador.
UNIDO started implementation of its first Integrated Programme (IP) for Ecuador at the beginning of 2003. Seed money of US$ 1 million was made available on a joint basis by the Ministry of External Trade, Industrialization, Competitiveness and Fisheries (MICIP) and UNIDO and was allocated to activities in component one – Competitiveness Policies; component two – Assistance to SMEs in Cluster Development; and component three – Investment and Partnership Promotion. Component four - Energy Efficiency and Cleaner Production, initially without funding, will now play a part in providing energy needs for component five.
Component one of the IP has mainly focused on capacity building in the formulation and application of industrial competitiveness indicators; on preparing the first in a series of annual industrial competitiveness reports; and an annual publication on the cost of doing business in Ecuador. In component two, the UNIDO methodology for developing and strengthening clusters has been introduced in the clothing and textile cluster in Atuntaqui and the shoe and leather cluster in Ambato and expert technical advice has been given at plant level to generate immediate impact through cost cutting and productivity increases. In component three, training courses were given in the UNIDO software COMFAR (see www.unido.org/comfar) and a series of investment proposals were prepared and promoted through the UNIDO network of ITPOs.
Component five of the IP is working on institutional strengthening and capacity building in trade performance, one the services offered by UNIDO in its Trade Capacity Building Initiative. Designed both as an immediate response to Ecuador’s specific and urgent needs in building its trade-related capacities, the component could also be seen as a pilot programme which can subsequently be replicated at sub-regional level and, indeed, with any country or group of countries entering a new trading environment and seeking help in improving their capacity to survive and compete.
In Magariños’ view, component five of the integrated programme constitutes a pillar for the programme in Ecuador. In earlier work in component one of the IP, an analysis of industrial competitiveness (view or download report Competitividad Industrial del Ecuador) revealed that the fruit sector has a great potential that has not been fully exploited. For this reason, future activities will concentrate on increasing value added to fruit through further processing and improvements in productivity. As a complementary activity in component four, UNIDO is assessing the viability of improving access for small producers to clean, cheap, energy by setting up a mini-hydro electric plant in a fruit producing rural area. This will probably be in the province of Loja.
While in Vienna, Minister Baki in the name of the President of Ecuador, Lucio Gutiérrez Borbúa, decorated the UNIDO Director-General with the National Order “Al Merito” at the level of Grand Cross (Orden Nacional al Mérito con el grado de Gran Cruz) in recognition of his contribution to: poverty alleviation through sustainable industrial development; the enhancement of the relationship between Ecuador and the UN; and international cooperation and development.
Diana Hubbard, Tel: +43 1 26060 / 3652, E-mail: D.Hubbard@unido.org
Unanimous support from High Level Committee on Programmes for UNIDO system-wide proposal
21 March, 2005
The UN Chief Executive Board High Level Committee on Programmes (HLCP) has just announced its intention to set up an open ended task force to identify priority areas where the organizations represented in the HLCP can collaborate in the UNIDO Director-General Carlos Magariños' proposal (view or download proposal at www.unido.org/un-reform-book) to enhance the role of the UN system in the field of economic development. The UNIDO Director-General has presented the proposals as a means of advancing the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. The HLCP decision was published in the report dated 21 March, 2005, on its ninth session, held in Rome, Italy on 23-25 February, 2005.
The decision was taken after representatives of UNIDO briefed the Rome session of the Committee on the background and purpose of the proposal and on the series of consultations that the Director- General of UNIDO had undertaken with other Executive Heads and senior officials of the United Nations. The UNIDO briefing underscored the importance of economic development for achieving the MDGs and the need for enhanced collaboration among UN organizations working in this field. To these ends, the UNIDO delegation called for the establishment of an open-ended task force of interested organizations as an important step towards a voluntary mechanism for enhanced dialogue and collaboration within the UN system on economic development.
The Committee welcomed the UNIDO initiative and shared its basic objective to strengthen the inter-agency cooperation on sustained economic growth as a key dimension of the system-wide effort to support the attainment of the MDGs. The Committee also expressed appreciation for the consultative and participatory manner in which UNIDO was pursuing its proposal.
The HLCP noted that the proposal touched on many different dimensions of the on going activities of the system, including work on: economic growth and sustainable development; strengthening trade negotiation capacities in developing countries by addressing their supply constraints and enabling them to meet product and process standards; enhancing collaboration, including between UNDP and UNIDO, in developing and strengthening the private sector in developing countries; efforts aimed at helping bridge the transition from relief to development while also addressing the needs of refugees and internally displaced persons; measures to strengthen the link between economic growth and human development; support for productivity improvement and job creation; strengthening collaboration on capacity building in science and technology; focusing on shelter as a means to achieving productive and inclusive cities; and activities related to crime prevention.
Because of the number of dimensions touched upon by the proposals, the Committee considered that in identifying the priority areas for collaboration, the proposed task force should focus on a limited number of areas where it could add value to ongoing work in the system, and contribute to a better utilization of existing resources among the participating organizations, drawing on the menu of topics contained in the annex of the UNIDO note (view or download note). While the proposed task force itself was not expected to engage directly in joint programming and resource mobilization, the outcome of its work may lead to the development of joint programmes and joint efforts to mobilize resources among the organizations concerned.
The first job of the open-ended task force will be to agree on a well-defined, specific work- programme. The HLCP invited interested organizations to participate in the work of the task force and requested UNIDO to take the lead in convening and organizing the task force. The Committee requested the task force to report on the progress of its work at its meeting in September 2005, and to submit a final report to it in Spring of 2006.
The United Nations System Chief Executives Board (CEB) for Coordination - formerly the Administrative Committee on Coordination (ACC) - is the forum which brings the executive heads of all organizations to further coordination and cooperation on the whole range of substantive and management issues facing the United Nations system. Chaired by the Secretary-General of the United Nations, the Board meets twice annually. It is composed of the Executive Heads of the member organizations and is assisted by two high level committees, the High Level Committee on Programmes (HLCP) and the High Level Committee on Management (HLCM).
The High Level Committee on Programmes (HLCP) is the principal mechanism for system wide coordination in the programme area, established by the United Nations System Chief Executives Board for Coordination (CEB) in October 2000. Its main function is to advise CEB on policy, programme and operational matters of system-wide importance and to foster inter-agency cooperation and coordination on these matters on behalf of CEB. It is composed of senior representatives of member organizations who are responsible for programme matters and are authorized to take decisions on behalf of their Executive Heads. Andre Lazykin, Tel: +43 1 26060 / 3657, E-mail: A.Lazykin@unido.org
Swiss funded Urban Waste Programme for Havana
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 11 March 2005
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Havana's coastal municipality of Playa, one of the most populous in the city, will have access to a modern system for the collection of solid urban waste. The system, in addition to contributing to the protection of human health and the environment, will also be economically attractive. The Government of Switzerland through the State Secretary of Economic Affairs contributed US million to this project, to which the Cuban Government added Pesos 2.2 million. The execution has been entrusted to the Playa Municipal Directorate for Community Services, while the implementation is being handled by UNIDO and MINVEC, the Cuban Ministry for Foreign Investment and Economic Cooperation. The system is being installed with the intention of gradually extending it to the rest of the city and the country.
Signing ceremonies for the project took place at UNIDO HQ in Vienna on 1 March, 2005, and at MINVEC (Ministerio cubano para la Inversión Extranjera y la Colaboración Económica) HQ in Havana, Cuba on 7 March, 2005. In Vienna, the signatories were the Permanent Representative of Switzerland to UNIDO, Rudolf Schaller; the Permanent Representative of Cuba to UNIDO, José Ramón Cabañas Rodríguez; and the UNIDO Director-General Carlos Magariños.
A Swiss delegation headed by Dr. Oscar Knapp, Chief of the Division for Cooperation for Economic Development of SECO (Swiss Secretariat for Economic Cooperation), was in Cuba for the signing. Dr. Knapp was accompanied by Mr. Hans-Peter Egler, Chief of the Environmental Division's Department for Commercial Cooperation and Transfer of Clean Technology. Foreign Investment and Economic Cooperation Minister Marta Lomas, who was accompanied by high officials of her Unit, signed for Cuba. Director of UNIDO’s Regional Office in Mexico, Gustavo Aishemberg, travelled to Havana to sign for UNIDO. The Resident Coordinator of the UN in Cuba and Representative of UNIDO in Cuba, Bruno Moro; the Ambassador of Switzerland, Bertrand Louis; and a number of high officials from the People's Parliament and the Municipality of Playa were present at the ceremony.
The project, explained UNIDO’s official in Cuba, Engineer Florentino Chacon, involves the active participation of the people of Playa in dividing up their household waste. Containers will be installed in the households divided into sections for paper and cardboard; metal; plastic; and glass.
Senior UNIDO Official responsible for the programme, based at UNIDO HQ in Vienna Austria, Engineer Mayra Sanchez-Osuna said that the project will process biodegradable residues which will be converted into natural fertilizer for urban agriculture and biogas to be used as fuel in kitchens and vehicles. Ms. Sanchez said that the outcome of the project will be a technological, social, economic and environmental advance for the country. “Lets hope that this technology takes root so that we can extend it to other municipalities” said Ms. Sanchez.
The Swiss delegation from the state Secretariat of Economic Affairs was part of an official Swiss mission to Cuba. Among the other officials in the mission are Ambassador Remo Cautschi, Deputy Director of the Swiss Agency for Development Cooperation (COSUDE), which is part of the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs. At the conclusion of the mission, Ambassador Gautschi inaugurated the new HQ of COSUDE which is located in the UN Complex. Mayra Sanchez-Osuna, Tel.: +43 1 26026 3945, E-mail: M.Sanchez-Osuna@unido.orgcoming events
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