Statement by H.E. Ambassador Mr. Alyaksandr Sychov, Permanent Representative of the Republic of Belarus to the International Organizations in Vienna at the Plenary Meeting of the 11th session of UNIDO’ General Conference (Vienna, 30 November 2005)

Esteemed Mr. Chairman,

I would like to offer my congratulations to you and your colleagues on your election as the Bureau-members of the UNIDO’ General Conference at its 11th session. It is my sincere hope that during your tenure this Forum will successfully tackle the important tasks it faces.

Our delegation positively assess the work of Dr. Carlos A. Magarinos, who concludes his career on the post of UNIDO’ Director-General. Belarus holds that Dr. C. Magarinos achieved significant results in the implementation of the UNIDO’ priority goals.

Our delegation is confident, that Dr. Kandeh Yumkella, who has been recently elected as a new Organization’ Director-General, disposes a vast experience in the principle UNIDO’ activities. We do sincerely hope, that under his skillful leadership the Organization will manage to substantially expand and optimize its programs and projects. The Republic of Belarus is fully determined to support Dr. K.Yumkella on the post of the UNIDO’ Director-General.

Our delegation notes with satisfaction the substantial expansion of the scope of joint “Belarus-UNIDO” activities. Thanks to the Organization’s support, the quantity of the foreign participants of the projects on the territory of Belarus and in the third countries has considerably increased.

Presented drafts of the UNIDO’ Program, Budget and other documents establish sound prerequisites for the growth of the cooperation. Our country is interested to draw UNIDO’ technical assistance to tackle the tasks the Belarusian industry faces, including the adoption of foreign technologies and the introducing of our technological applications to the foreign markets.

The Republic of Belarus is interested in the use of the UNIDO’s experience and expertise to mitigate the interregional and intersectoral imbalances and to strengthen of the industrial competitiveness in view of the Belarus’ accession to the WTO.

Joint activities aimed at the investments' encouragement within the higher-technologies sector, promotion of small innovative enterprises, introduction of international standards and environmentally sound technologies also should be continued.

We are convinced that the priority projects aimed at the reconstruction of the industrial capacities in the regions affected by the Chernobyl Disaster should be added to the bilateral technical cooperation program.

We positively assess the forthcoming signing of the Country Service Program “Belarus-UNIDO”. Thanks to the program our joint activities will acquire a comprehensive systematic and yet targeted and specific character.

The Republic of Belarus has a significant scientific and industrial potential as well as a vast experience in carrying out the capacity-building projects in various countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America. The Belarusian experts participated in the development of a number of projects in the fields of water supply, irrigation, power-energy, timber- and food-processing and their construction. Most of them still use the Belarusian-made equipment and machinery.

The Republic of Belarus in its capacity of a technology donor is ready to build up the mutually beneficial cooperation with the developing countries.

We expect that the UNIDO Secretariat will render its expertise to develop the “East-South” Technology Exchange Program with the participation of Belarus as well as the countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America. The Republic of Belarus hopes that international financial institutions of the Bretton-Woods system will join this Program.

In this connection I would like to express the appreciation to the senior management of UNIDO, to the Department of the Technology Promotion and to the Europe/NIS Bureau of the Department of Program Co-ordination for the sustained support of our efforts.

Our delegation notes with satisfaction the substantial efforts made by the UNIDO’ management to improve the Organization’s efficiency. Belarus supports the co-ordination of UNIDO’ program activities with the overall priorities of the UN-system, as stated in the “UN-Summit 2005” decisions. Worthy of approval is the growing co-operation between the UNIDO and other intergovernmental institutions.

At the same time we expect that this cooperation would enable better use of program resources and will be instrumental in preserving the Organization’s identity and self-dependence.

Belarus supports the UNIDO’ activities as a Global Forum on Industrial Development. We are in favor of further carrying out by the Organization of strategic research, aimed at developing optimal methods for achieving sustainable industrial development.

The further division of roles, responsibilities and competences between country/regional offices and UNIDO’ Headquarter should be continued. The HQ activities should be focused on the establishment of standards/guidelines. The Regional Offices should concentrate their efforts on the strategic and conceptual questions. The Country Offices ought to carry out all current activities.

The country offices’ expansion has not result in the overloading of the Organization’s budget. It is necessary to redistribute in due course the human resources between HQ and its field offices as well as to provide appropriate incentives to the most effective missions.

The Republic of Belarus supports on the whole the drafts of the UNIDO’ Program and Budget for 2006-2007. At the same time our delegation deems it necessary to remove the existing imbalances in the Organization’s activities. To our opinion the work Organization is improportionally devoted to the implementation of the multilateral environmental agreements. This puts obstacles for the further development of other UNIDO’ priorities, including Industrial Management/Statistics, Investments’ Encouragement, Technology Transfer, Improvement of Quality/Productivity. It is indicative that at the time the latter represent less that 30 percent of the UNIDO’ services.

The Republic of Belarus is of the opinion, that according to its mandate UNIDO could adequately contribute to the post-conflict rehabilitation of the industry in the affected countries. A the same time e are convinced that these activities could not result in the diminishing of the program allocations and the cutting down of the project activities with other Member-States o the UNIDO.

The sound and predictable financial basis is a prerequisite for achieving of the Organization’s priorities. We deem it inadmissible that the Organization still has significant volume of the unpaid assessed contributions. The arrears of the former UNIDO’ Member-States also remains considerable.

In order to attract additional financial resources the UNIDO secretarial should actively use innovative mechanisms, including partnership with the private companies – participants of the “Global Compact” initiated by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

In conclusion I would like to stress that the Republic of Belarus shares the appraisals of the UNIDO’ Director-General regarding the not simple situation in the international industrial development. Our delegation supports the proposed Organization’s priorities for the future and intends to participate actively in the tackling of tasks it faces.

Thank you.