UNUnited Nations Economic Commission for Europe

Press Release

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UNECE and UNIDO sign a Memorandum of Understanding

Geneva, 2 May 2001

On 27 April 2001, Ms. Danuta Hübner, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) and Mr. Carlos Magariños, Director-General of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) whereby they agree to enhance their cooperation for the attainment of their respective objectives in the areas of their competence in order to better serve member States and their peoples, on the basis of a common United Nations message and mutual complementarity and synergy of their activities.

Cooperation is to be maintained at programme formulation and implementation stages both at the secretariat and field levels, in particular, in the following fields: enterprise and entrepreneurship development, including industrial restructuring and SMEs; energy efficiency; environmental protection, including cleaner production and environmentally safe technologies generally; public-private partnership; industrial policy; standardization, certification and accreditation; and statistics, indicators and empirical economic research.

Particular attention should be given to implementation of conventions, norms, regulations and standards to help the respective member States in their integration into the European and world economies.

For the purpose of strengthening cooperation it was agreed to:

Conduct consultations, when required, during the process of formulating work programmes and/or projects being prepared for member States to better use expertise available in both organizations;

Seek assistance, when required, in identifying international experts/consultants needed for implementing programmes/projects;

Extend mutual invitations to take part in the meetings (sessions, conferences, round tables, seminars, workshops, etc.) to be organized in the identified fields, including training workshops;

Carry out joint activities (meetings and/or projects) on matters of mutual interest as appropriate; and

Exchange information on the current and planned activities in the identified fields including information on ECE legal instruments in force through established channels, including Internet, by placing information on respective web pages and/or specific requests.

During the MoU signing ceremony the Heads of both Organizations underlined the necessity of using the expertise and resources of both organizations for the benefit of their member States and expressed the hope that the MoU would facilitate cooperation between the secretariats in delivering much needed technical assistance to countries in transition.

 For more information, please contact:

Larissa Kapitsa, Chief
Coordinating Unit for Operational Activities
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe
Palais des Nations
CH - 1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland

Telephone: (+ 41 22) 917 42 21
Telefax:   (+ 41 22) 917 01 78
E-mail: [email protected]

or

Andrei Maevski
Coordinating Unit for Operational Activities
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe
Palais des Nations
CH - 1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland

Telephone:  (+ 41 22) 917 32 96
Telefax:   (+ 41 22) 917 01 78
E-mail: [email protected]

 

Ref:  ECE/OPA/01/02