Statement by H.E. Mr. Mitsuru Kitano, Permanent Representative of Japan at the 16th Session of the General Conference of UNIDO Vienna, 30 November - 4 December 2015

Madame President,


I would like to begin by offering my sincere congratulations on your election as President. I am confident that this session will be successful under your able leadership.

 
I would also like to welcome the Marshall Islands as a new member of UNIDO.
 

Madame President,

 
UNIDO has made important and positive steps forward since the General Conference in Lima in 2013.

 
We praise UNIDO for placing Inclusive and Sustainable Industrial Development (ISID) at the core of its activities, and for aligning its operational services with this new mandate. Furthermore, we welcome the steady progress of the new partnership approach, Programme for Country Partnerships (PCP), seeking to enhance synergies and maximize UNIDO’s developmental impact.

 
We commend UNIDO’s policy engagement which has successfully led to the incorporation of the concept of ISID into Goal 9 of the 2030 Agenda. We are pleased to see UNIDO’s role as one of the key organizations for global development challenges endorsed by the international community.
 

Madame President,

 
Japan recognizes UNIDO’s key role in industrial development and highly evaluates the Organization’s performance. I would like to share with you that in the assessment of 68 international organizations conducted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan last August, UNIDO was ranked among one of the top four organizations.
 

This March, I visited two African countries, Ethiopia and Kenya, to reflect upon UNIDO’s strengths. In my perspective, UNIDO’s strengths are (1) its proximity to the private sector, (2) its role as a platform for donor cooperation enabling targeted partnerships and (3) its strength in recipient countries’ key sectors.
 

Madame President,

 
With this in mind, we have been providing significant support to the Organization for many years.

 
In the past 5 consecutive years, the Government of Japan has funded a total of over 30 million USD, on top of its contribution to the regular budget, for UNIDO technical cooperation projects in Africa, providing vulnerable groups such as women and youth with vocational training. We gladly introduced one of our projects as an example of good practice at yesterday’s donor meeting.

 
In relation to African development, Japan has been successfully holding the Tokyo International Conference on African Development, TICAD, for the past 20 years. We are pleased to announce that the next meeting will be held in Kenya, in the African continent for the first time. We look forward to UNIDO’s active engagement for its successful outcome.

 
After years of collaborating in the field of energy and environment, this area continues to be highly relevant to us, as indicated by the COP21 meeting held in Paris. In the past two years we have committed a total amount of over 10 million USD to activities in this area. An additional 3 million USD will be disbursed shortly towards the Low Carbon Low Emission Technology Transfer projects (LCET) in Ethiopia and Kenya for increased access to sustainable energy by using our low carbon technologies.

 
Furthermore, we continue to attach great importance to facilitating the collaboration between UNIDO and the Japanese private sector. We welcome UNIDO’s initiative of a Japan UNIDO multi-stakeholder cooperation dialogue to enhance UNIDO’s activities in these areas. We hope technology and know-how of the Japanese private sector will be fully utilized in the UNIDO activities.
 

Madame President,

 
The implementation of the 2030 Agenda represents an immense task for UNIDO. In view of the limited resources, optimized use of existing resources is needed. UNIDO is expected to pay attention to the following points.

 
The first is field structure adjustment. Optimal allocation of UNIDO’s resources in the field, and synergies in the United Nations Resident Coordination system are indispensable.

 
The second element is expansion of PCP. Given the increasing importance of PCP in the UNIDO’s whole operation, expansion of PCP should be successful. We gladly note that Peru has been selected as the third pilot country. We are of the view that regional balance is one of the elements to be considered in the selection process.

 
The third element is the establishment of a practical mechanism to follow up on the SDG’s. Formulation of the indicators of the Medium-term Programme Framework in line with the SDGs is essential.

 
The fourth element is a strong tie with Member States. The trend of withdrawal of Member States must be reversed. In doing so, we would like to point out the importance for UNIDO to keep a good dialogue with all its Member States, not only with the recipient countries but also with donor countries.

 
The fifth element is transparency and accountability. In such processes as field structure adjustment and expansion of PCP, due consideration should be given to transparency and accountability.

 
Madame President,

 
I would like to conclude by reaffirming that Japan, as its largest donor remains a strong supporter of UNIDO, and we continue to offer our constructive partnership to the Organization in securing capacities to fulfil the mandates of the Lima Declaration and the 2030 Agenda.

 
I thank you for your attention.