Skip to: content | navigation | search & sites services
Vienna, Austria, 29 November - 3 December 1999
To read PDF files you need Adobe Acrobat Reader. To download it, please click on the icon.
Conference with a Difference
The eighth Session of the General Conference marked the culmination of a far-reaching transformation process of UNIDO, under the leadership of Carlos Magariños, who was appointed Director-General by the seventh Session of the General Conference, in December 1997. Initiated at the seventh Session, radical overhaul of administrative structures and procedures matched by development of a client-oriented approach to providing industrial services have put the Organization at the forefront of United Nations reform. The cornerstone of this transformation has been the 
Business Plan for the Future Role and Functions of UNIDO adopted by Members States at the seventh Session. The eighth Session of the General Conference set the agenda for industrial development in the new millennium. For the first time, the debate focused on the wider issues of the past, present and future of industrialization at the Forum on Sustainable Industrial Development More...,held during the General Conference, as well as on how the United Nations specialized agency for industrial development would shape its programmes to meet the challenges ahead.
| Daily Highlights |
29 November 1999 (morning plenary meeting)
At the invitation of UNIDO Director-General Carlos Magariños, President of Côte d'Ivoire Henri Konan Bédié opened the eighth Session of UNIDO's 168-Member State General Conference on 29 November 1999. 
Mr. Bédié maintained that there had been a resurgence of economic vitality in Africa and that it was high time for Africa to be fully integrated in the global economy."After emerging from a turbulent period, UNIDO is now demonstrating its vitality in which we are seeing a proliferation of initiatives to develop industry on a planetary scale. UNIDO will enjoy Africa's support the least developed continent", said Mr. Bédié. The General Conference provided a great opportunity for Africa to make its voice heard at the dawn of the third millennium from the rostrum of an organization as prestigious as UNIDO working to promote economic development all over the world, he concluded. Photo: President of Côte d'Ivoire More...
In her address to the Conference, Austrian State Secretary Benita Ferrero-Waldner called for 
greater financial commitment to UNIDO to help the world's needy reap the benefits of industrialization in the era of globalization. "UNIDO has achieved unprecedented reforms", she added. "Now we must use the reformed instrument of international cooperation that UNIDO has become. We must make available the necessary funds for implementing the integrated programmes. Only when they are implemented, canthey make a difference in the lives of women and men and children." Photo: Austrian State Secretary Benita Ferrero-WaldnerMore...
Addressing the opening of the Conference, UNIDO Director-General Carlos Magariños named three main development challenges facing the world: financing market volatility, inequality of income distribution and environmental deterioration. 
Mr.Magariños said UNIDO can help reduce the threat of market volatility by strenghtening the conomies of developing countries. He called for third wave in development reforms, stressing that macroeconomic stability in developing countries should be linked to their microeconomic performance. Mr. Magariños explained that first generation development reforms rested on one-off productivity gains while the second generation were based on longer term productivity gains benefitting social and economic infrastructure. A third generation of reforms were needed, he said, "to maintain democratic support for the reform process. It is essential to find mechanisms that make it possible to achieve medium-term productivity gains through the expansion of the private sectors of emerging economies." Mr. Magariños reviewed progress in 1998-99 on the integrated programme approach UNIDO developed for tailoring packages of services to meet the needs of individual client countries. While increased voluntary funding was important for financing these packages, Mr. Magariños emphasized that the political participation of Member States was crucial for the future of UNIDO's work.Photo: UNIDO Director-General Carlos MagariñosFull statement
Mr. Shaukat Umer (Pakistan), who was elected President of the Conference, referred to UNIDO as "the standard beacon of the reform process in multilateralism". Mr. Umer emphasized that the comparative advantage of organizations like UNIDO must be utilized in an optimal manner. Photo: Mr. Magariños, Mr. Umer and Ms. OrlowskiMore...
The Conference elected the following Vice-Presidents: Juan Carlos Kreckler (Argentina), Benita Ferrero-Waldner (Austria), V. Naidunov (Belarus), Thomas Sanon (Burkina Faso), Said Abdulaati Mohamed (Libyan Arab Jamahiriya), O. Pellicer Silva (Mexico), Y.V. Fedotov (Russian Federation), C.S. Poolokasingham (Sri Lanka) and Fugen Ok (Turkey).
29 November 1999 (afternoon plenary meeting)
UNIDO Forum on Sustainable Industrial Development
Panel 1 - The New Geography of Industry - Insights from Economic Analysis
President of Côte d'Ivoire Henri Konan Bédié opened the UNIDO Forum on Sustainable Industrial Development, organized within the framework of the UNIDO General Conference, to discuss the future of manufacturing industry as the economic spaces of developed and developing countries as well as economies in transition, were becoming increasingly integrated and different groups of actors were intensifying their integration.
The first, out of five panels, on The New Geography of Industry - Insights from Economic Analysis 
addressed some of the divergent effects of the globalization process on regional patterns of industrial development, both between various countries and within individual countries, and the different mechanisms of adjustment in the globalization context and their effects. Ghislain Robyn, UNIDO Director of Statistics and Information Networks, moderated the debate on three major topics: the importance of industry in economic development, the interplay between traditional forces of comparative advantage and non-traditional "geographic" determinants in explaining the process of industrial agglomeration that has accompanied the globalization process, and the review of the implications of globalization for the principal "factors" of industrial production, namely, labour and skills, capital and technology. Photo: Plenary
Panelists presented papers: Ms. Sylvia Delgado of University of Sussex on How Strong is comparatives advantage? - Stimulating the location of industry; Ms. Yuko Kinoshita of CERGE-EI, Charles University in Prague on Capital flows and technology - Some country-specific evidence, and Prof. S. Machin of University College London and London School of Economics on Technology and skills in industry - The international evidence.
Speakers raised many issues related to the underlying impact of globalization on the industrial development prospects of developing countries and economies in transition.
30 November 1999 (morning plenary meeting)
UNIDO Forum on Sustainable Industrial Development
Panel 2: Globalization of production systems and implications for developing countries and economies in transition - upgrading of local competitiveness
The debate raised very important issues regarding the business-level implications of globalization for industrial development in developing countries and economies in transition. 
Moderated by Frederic Richard, UNIDO Director of Industrial Policies and Research, the panel on Globalization of production systems and implications for developing countries and economies in transition - upgrading of local competitiveness showed that the globalization of production systems brought both opportunities and dangers. On the one hand, it provided these countries with new opportunities for accessing markets and resources, upgrading skills and knowledge, and stimulating the development of local supplier networks. On the other, it gave rise to increased competition between them to attract global firms - if this competition was based on cheap labour and tax incentives, it could drive developing countries and economies in transition into a trap of increased industrial activities without accompanying income growth.Photo: Panel
The panelists offered a number of policy recommendations based on their analytical and empirical research. Dr. Schmitz, Fellow of the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, examined the effect of the globalization of value chains in an increasing number of industries. Mr. Didier Lombard, Ambassador at-large, Special Representative of the French Government for International Investment, pointed out the growing importance of FDI as a driver of growth as well as the importance of maintaining an investor-friendly policy framework. Dr. Claudio Frischtak, Managing Partner Worldinvest Brazil showed that skill development, the creation of infrastructure and institutional capacity-building are indispensable prerequisites for upgrading local competitiveness.
30 November 1999 (afternoon plenary meeting)
UNIDO Forum on Sustainable Industrial Development
Panel 3: Industrialization Facing Environmental Challenges - Specific Contributions to Solving Large Problems
The Panel dealt with the important issues of industrial development and environmental protection. Speakers yielded an important message that while industry has traditionally been a major source of environmental stress, 
it also created new methods and technologies to minimize this environmental threat and even to reverse some of the damage that has already been done.
Professor Jacquie M. McGlade, Director of the Centre for Coastal and Marine Sciences Natural Environment Research Council, UK, and a member of the panel, provided an important analytical and conceptual framework for assessing the environmental implications of industrial development. Based on this framework, Professor McGlade offered a number of highly relevant policy recommendations about how to link people, resources and energy to reduce the environmental burden of industrial development.
A presentation of another panelist Mr. Edward C. Yeh, President of Synder, Inc., USA, showed that the use of cleaner and environmental sound technologies could be commercially and economically viable. He said that UNIDO could act as an incubator for the transfer of new environmentally-friendly technologies to developing countries.
In his presentation, the panelist Mr. Edwin P.D. Barnes, Chief Director of Ministry of Environment of Ghana, highlighted his experience in managing the problems posed by post-consumer plastic wastes. In an attempt to reduce the environmental threat posed by industrial growth, Mr. Barnes indicated his country's interest in establishing a UNIDO/UNEP National Cleaner Production Centre.
In turn, the Head of the Republic of Komi, Russian Federation, exlained how the use of environmentally safe production technologies could result in increased profits, even if they are more expensive at the beginning.
Cahit Gurkok, UNIDO Director of Industrial Energy Efficiency Branch, stressed the importance of energy for industrial development, as well as the inequality in global energy consumption and difference in the efficiency of energy use in developed and developing countries. He indicated a variety of energy strategies aimed at combining cost reduction and environmental benefits in order to bring solutions to energy issues.
In his conclusion, Zoltan Csizer, UNIDO Director of the Cleaner Production and Environmental Management Branch and moderator of the Panel, stressed that the society driven by consumption transformed natural resources into wastes as a human economic activity. These consumption patterns have to be changed and as a consequence the production patters will also change in order to use natural resources in more responsible way. UNIDO offers a partnership in this venture, he said.
1 December 1999 (morning plenary meeting)
UNIDO Forum on Sustainable Industrial Development
UNIDO Forum on Sustainable Industrial Development
Panel 4: The UNIDO Partnership Programme - A New Approach to Promoting Small and Medium Enterprises
The Panel dealt with a unique partnership approach developed by UNIDO between representatives of local and international public and private sector entities to 
promote the technological upgrading of local SMEs and their integration into global value chains. The pioneering project of the UNIDO Partnership Programme, designed to assist Indian automotive component manufacturers to produce car parts that meet international quality standards, was launched in Vienna last November. The cooperation agreements were signed by UNIDO and FIAT S.p.A., the Automotive Research Association of India, the Automotive Component Manufacturers Association of India, the Prince of Wales Business Leaders Forum and France's INSEAD Business School in the presence of the Secretary of Ministry of Industry of India.
The Panel's moderator Wilfried Luetkenhorst explained how some of the concepts discussed in earlier panels are being put into practical application. He also noted the need to experiment and test new models of industrial development. His comments were supported by two key-note speakers Mr. Ajit Kumar, Permanent Secretary of the Indian Ministry of Industry and Mr. Mauro Pasquero, Senior Vice President for International Affairs of FIAT S.p.A.
Panelists - representing the partner bodies of the programme - spoke about the programme as a successful and cost-effective vehicle for promoting industrial development by allowing the various parties in the enterprise to contribute their own specific strength. They expressed their full satisfaction with its objectives, design and achievements. Present were: Mr. Robert Davies, Chief Executive of the Prince of Wales Business Leaders Forum, Mr. Dinesh Munot, President of Indian Automotive Component Manufacturers Association, Mr. M.S. Ogale, Assistant Director of Indian Automotive Research Association, Mr. Jean-Pierre Brouquil, International Business Development Director at Magneti Marelli , Professor Shantanu Bhattacharya of European Institute for Management (INSEAD) and Yasuo Konishi, UNIDO programme leader.
UNIDO Forum on Sustainable Industrial Development
Panel 5: Integration, Agglomeration and Interaction in World Industry - Drawing Some Lessons
Summary by the Director-General
Concluding the Forum on Sustainable Industrial Development, Director-General Carlos Magariños said, 
"What has been learned during this Forum places UNIDO on track to become a prime agency helping developing and transition economies to adopt and implement a third generation of reforms which will bring medium-term productivity improvements that are absolutely crucial for maintaining democratic support for economic reform processes". Following the introduction of the first generations of reforms aimed at macroeconomic stabilization and structural adjustment with one-off productivity gains and the second generation's focus on institution building or long-term aims, this third generation would mobilize technology, skills and knowledge for the private sector. Photo: Mr. Magariños concluding the Forum
Mr. Magariños summarized the most important points made during the five panels saying, "We have heard that the forces of industrial agglomeration tend to increase inequalities in economic development both between and within countries and that competition is increasingly driven by non-price factors such as product quality, delivery speed, design and product-related services". Also emphasized was that the integration of developing countries, and particularly their small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), into global production networks and value chains required continuous upgrading and the creation of national innovation systems.
Mr. Magariños noted that the Forum yielded several important policy considerations. These, he argued, underscored the need for a third generation of economic reforms which "would connect people with the global economy through a supply-side response for example, the development of new, productivity-raising SMEs connected by national and foreign investment to national and international value chains".Summary of the Forum...(PDF/64KB, 17 pages)
1 December 1999 (afternoon plenary meeting)
General debate
Statements were made by the representatives of India (on behalf of the Group 77 and China), Finland (on behalf of the European Union, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Hungary, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia), Ecuador (on behalf of GRULAC), Senegal, Algeria, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Slovakia, Saudi Arabia, Japan, Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, Italy, Nigeria, Tunisia, Pakistan, Bulgaria, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Romania, Bolivia, Haiti, Mauritius, Cambodia, the Observer of the Holy See, United Nations Development Programme and the Arab Industrial Development and Mining Organization.
2 December 1999 (morning plenary meeting)
General debate
Statements were made by the representatives of Lebanon, Peru, Belarus, Poland, Russian Federation, Islamic Republic of Iran, Sierra Leone, Czech Republic, Republic of Korea, Burkina Faso, Ecuador, Ireland, Libyan Arab Jamahirya, Kuwait, Morocco, Ghana, Philippines, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Colombia, Azerbaijan, Ethiopia, and the former Ambassador and Representative of Sudan to UNIDO.
2 December 1999 (afternoon plenary meeting)
General debate
Statements were made by the representatives of Switzerland, China, Ukraine, Argentina, Turkey, Malaysia, Spain, Egypt, Norway, Mexico, Yemen, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Sudan, Lesotho, Uruguay, Rwanda, France, Indonesia, Angola, Mongolia, the Economic Commission for Europe, the International Congress of Industrialists and Entreprenurs and the Association of Former United Nations Industrial Development Experts.
3 December 1999 (morning plenary meeting)
Coming to Vienna to address the closure of the session, 
Senegalese President Abdou Diouf advocated "a new form of cooperation and action regrouping the agencies and and organizations for economic development around the UN Secretariat. Because of the particular interest industrialization represents for the developing world as a way to eradicate poverty, UNIDO would benefit from the support of its sister organizations in this new institutional framework translating into concrete actions the will of the international community to support the development of Africa". Photo: President Abdou Diouf addressing the Conference
The crucial role of industrialization in promoting economic development and alleviating poverty was reaffirmed by the General Conferenc. High on the agenda was backing for the Organization's new approach to delivering packages of integrated industrial services tailored to the needs of individual client countries. To fund these packages, Member States called for increased voluntary contributions from donors as well as cost-sharing by recipient countries. They approved the commitment of .6 million in unutilized balances from the bienniums 1992-93 and 1996-97 to help pay for the integrated programmes, subject to individual Member States' concurrence. During the Conference, voluntary donations were announced by Austria ( id="ucfLayout02" onload="try { OnBodyLoad(); } catch(e) { }; afterload();".3 million), India ( id="ucfLayout02" onload="try { OnBodyLoad(); } catch(e) { }; afterload();".2 million) and the United Kingdom ( id="ucfLayout02" onload="try { OnBodyLoad(); } catch(e) { }; afterload();" million), which came in addition to some million pledged before the gathering. The Conference went on to approve net appropriations of 2.9 million for UNIDO's regular budget for 2000-01.
The 26 Members of the 53-nation Industrial Development Board, elected for a four-year term, were Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Chile, China, Colombia, Croatia, Ethiopia, France, Germany, Ghana, Guatemala, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Morocco, Pakistan, Peru, Republic of Korea, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Tunisia and United Kingdom.
The 27 Members of Programme and Budget Committee, elected for a two-year term, were Angola, Argentina, Austria, China, Côte d'Ivoire, Cuba, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Ecuador, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Nigeria, Philippines, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, Slovakia, Sudan, Sweden, Tunisia, Turkey and United Kingdom.More...
