Item 2: The Agency’s proposed programme for 2022-2023
Distinguished Chairman,
The Chinese delegation aligns itself with the statement made on this agenda item by the distinguished Ambassador of Cost Rica on behalf of G77 and China.
The Chinese delegation has carefully studied the Agency’s proposed programme for 2022-2023 contained in GOV/2021/45. In preparing the TC project proposals for 2022-2023, the Secretariat has given priority support to the needs of Member States in food and agriculture, health and nutrition, nuclear safety and security and the country and regional TC projects have been tailored to meet the conditions of a country or a region. They have generally reflected the needs and the priorities of Member States and followed the calls of Member States, particularly the developing countries, for expanding use of nuclear energy and applications of nuclear technology. China highly appreciates this. China endorses this proposed programme and will, as always, support the Agency’s technical cooperation by making committed efforts and contributions towards the expected success of the TC cycle 2022-2023.
Mr Chairman,
China has noted at the same time that, due to the impact of the pandemic, of the “core” projects in the 2022-2023 TC programme, the resources for the human resources development of Member States (scientific visits, fellowships, technical exchanges, etc.) are approximately 61%, which is lower than previous years. China expresses concern over this. We hope that the Secretariat will carefully study ways and means on how to strengthen human resources development of Member States through TC projects under the new normal situation of the pandemic so as to truly improve the capacity of Member States in nuclear energy development and nuclear technology applications. China has also noted that, in the new proposed programme in 2022, more than 50 million euros of Footnote A projects has no funding sources. This is to some extent an indication that the TCF is unable to meet the increasing demands of Member States, particularly the developing countries. We hope that the Secretariat will intensively seek and establish partnerships and continuously broaden financing channels that include contributions in-kind so as to find an appropriate solution to the issue of insufficiency of funds.
Mr Chairman,
Technical Cooperation is an important platform and tool of the Agency to help Member States improve their capacity of nuclear energy and nuclear technology applications, promote economic and social development and achievement of the UN SDGs. The TCF is the guarantee for the Agency to help Member States conduct TC activities. China always pays its contributions to the TCF in full and on time. In 2021, China has paid 10.35 million euros of contributions to the TCF, ranking 2nd among the Member States. In addition, China also provided to the Agency extra-budgetary contributions in-kind worth of $2 million for combating Covid-19 pandemic and provided $60 thousand of extra-budgetary contributions to the RCA Programme. We call upon the Secretariat to continue to take effective measures to ensure that the TC resources are sufficient, assured and predictable and keep an appropriate balance between the Agency’s promotional and non-promotional activities; we appeal to all Member States to truly fulfil their political commitment to the Agency’s TC activities and pay their TCF contributions and national participation costs in full and on time in order to provide a guarantee to the smooth conduct of the TC activities.
With the above comments, the Chinese delegations agrees to the recommended actions contained in document GOV/2021/45.
Thank you, Mr Chairman.
Item 3 - Evaluation of Technical Cooperation Activities in 2021
Mr. Chairman.
The Chinese delegation has carefully studied the report of the OIOS as contained in document GOV/2021/46 and aligns itself with the statement made by the distinguished Ambassador of Costa Rica on behalf of "G-77 and China" under this item. The Chinese delegation actively supports and highly appreciates the independent and objective work of the OIOS in contributing to the improvement of the effectiveness of the implementation of the Agency's technical cooperation projects and the efficient use of the Technical Cooperation Fund.
The Chinese delegation noted that the OIOS conducted " Country-level Evaluation and Audits " in four European countries, namely Croatia, Georgia, Montenegro and North Macedonia. The evaluation report noted that the Agency's TC projects were highly aligned with the development priorities of the above-mentioned countries, and that their implementation contributed to the achievement of sustainable development goals in the above-mentioned countries, yet the lack of a systematic and long-term vision affected the effectiveness of project implementation. In addition, the OIOS found that the pandemic led to a significant reduction in human resource training-related activities; a surge in equipment procurement and a backlog of orders; a knowledge gap caused by the departure or transfer of project management officers. In addition, iVetNet, the third-party cloud-based information platform, has a potential risk of information security breach.
The Chinese delegation believes that the conclusions and recommendations made in the evaluations by the OIOS are of great reference value and positive for the effective implementation of TC projects. We hope that the Secretariat will continue to attach great importance to providing technical advice and capacity building support to Member States, adjusting the proportion of equipment procurement according to their specific conditions, and further strengthening internal management to continuously improve the efficiency and effectiveness in the implementation of technical cooperation projects.
With these comments, the Chinese delegation took note of the report on the Evaluation of Technical Cooperation Activities in 2021, as contained in document GOV/2021/46.