Statement by Ambassador Mitsuru Kitano at the Board of Governors Meeting Item 3 : Strengthening the Agency’s technical cooperation activities: Technical Cooperation Report for 2014

Thank you, Madame Chair.


Japan would like to thank the Secretariat for preparing the “Technical Cooperation Report for 2014” (GOV/2015/24) and its supplement, which
provides a useful overview of the Agency’s Technical Cooperation activities. I would like to thank DDG Aning for the technical briefing and his
introductory statement and I would like to take this opportunity to commend his wonderful leadership. We also commend the Secretariat’s efforts aimed
at enhancing efficiency and transparency of its Technical Cooperation (TC) activities.


Madame Chair,


Japan attaches great importance to the Agency’s TC activities as they promote the peaceful uses of nuclear science and technology, and
contributes to the socio-economic development of Member States and also to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). We
acknowledge with satisfaction that tangible outcomes have been achieved through Director General Amano’s initiatives to promote peaceful uses of
nuclear technology in the areas of human health, nutrition, food security and safety, agriculture, water management and environment protection.
We also support the Agency’s approach to emphasizing on human resources development and capacity building in the Member States,
enabling Member States to be benefitted from nuclear science and technology in a sustainable manner. We are interested in further
strengthening regional cooperation arrangements, as they facilitate sharing of knowledge and experiences among the recipient countries and
contribute to the development of each region, and we would like to consult and cooperate with interested Member States.
We highly value the Agency’s active involvement in the discussions on the Post-2015 Development Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs), as well as its efforts to enhance and expand its partnerships with other international organizations and development partners, such as FAO,
WHO, UNEP and UNICEF. We will continue our support to the Agency through various international fora, to ensure that the Agency could further
contribute to the work of the global development community with its unique role and capacity.


Madame Chair,


We are concerned that the Rate of Attainment for the Technical Cooperation Fund (TCF) dropped to 89.5% in 2014. We recognize that the
TCF is the most important mechanisms to support the implementation of the Agency’s TC programmes, and despite its fiscal constraints, Japan has
consistently paid its full share of the TCF. We already paid our share for 2015, and urge all Member States to pay their share of the TCF target in
full and on time.

We believe that meeting this shared responsibility is the most critical element in increasing resources for the TC activities, and stress that ROAs
should not be decreased further in the coming years. On top of our continuous contribution to the TCF, which support the
implementation of core TC projects, we have contributed more than 13 million US dollars over the last four years, through IAEA Peaceful Uses
Initiative (PUI). We recognize that the PUI is an flexible mechanism to mobilize additional resources to the Agency’s activities, and in particular, to
implement unfunded footnote-a TC projects. As I mentioned earlier, Japan will contribute a total of 25 million US dollars over the next 5 years to the
PUI, and further support the Agency’s TC activities through this contribution.
We are concerned about the Implementation Rate of TCF in 2014 which dropped to 78.0%. We consider the Implementation Rate as an essential
indicator for appropriate managements of the Agency’s TC activities, and both the Secretariat and the Member States should continue their efforts in
improving the Implementation Rate. We would like to stress that the timely payment of National Participation Costs (NPCs) by the recipient States is
essential to implement TC projects in a timely manner.


We consider that the Country Programme Framework (CPF) is an important tool in determining the objectives of each TC activity in line with
the country’s national development priorities and in achieving effective and efficient implementation of TC projects. We welcome the fact that 13
countries signed CPFs in 2014, and stress the importance for as many recipient countries as possible to sign a CPF.
With these comments, Japan takes note of the Agency’s Technical Cooperation Report for 2014 contained in GOV/2015/24.


Thank you, Madame, Chair.