 |
UNDP United Nations Development Programme |
| Secretary-General’s
visit to Russia
The UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan paid an official visit to Russia from 21 to 24 of June 1999. He addressed the opening of the International Conference "100th Anniversary of the Russian Initiative: from the First International Peace Conference, 1899 – to the Third, 1999" held in St.Petersburg. In Moscow Kofi Annan met with the President of Russia Boris Yeltsin. They exchanged views on the situation in Kosovo, the international community efforts to regularize the situation in the Balkans and peace-keeping activities under UN auspices. The discussions continued with the Chairman of the Council of Federation Mr. Egor Stroyev, the Speaker of the State Duma Mr. Gennady Seleznev, the Prime Minister Mr. Sergei Stepashin and the Foreign Minister Mr.Igor Ivanov. Despite his busy schedule the Secretary-General managed to look through our newsletter and assessed it an instrumental and efficient for disseminating UN experience and promoting ideas of international cooperation. The Secretary-General wished the readers of the newsletter all the best. |
| UN/UNDP
Development Centre in St.Petersburg A UN/UNDP Development Centre for North West region was inaugurated in St. Petersburg on June 18. The initiative came from the Governor of St. Petersburg Vladimir Yakovlev and the UNDP Country Office in Russia, with support from United Nations development agencies, UNESCO, UN Information Centre, UNFPA, UNIDO, UNAIDS and ILO, to promote and implement UNDP and other UN development projects in the North West of Russia. The creation of the Centre is the first result of the Protocol of Intent signed in February 1999 between the City of St.Petersburg and the UNDP Country Office. The St.Petersburg administration has also established a Coordi-nation Board for liaison with UN development institutions. The centre is intended to become an important instrument of international cooperation in North West Russia. Its opening took place during the Third St.Petersburg Economic Forum, and this was no coincidence. UNDP has been playing an active role in the Forum for three years, inviting leading international experts, politicians and statesmen, and has thereby contributed to the Forum’s international authority. Address: |
|
UNDP United Nations Development Programme |
Meeting in Bratislava |
|
In April an annual meeting of UNDP resident representatives in Europe and CIS countries was held in the capital of Slovakia. Mr. Zephirin Diabre, UNDP Associate Administrator and Under Secretary-General, Mr. Anton Kruiderink, Assistant Admini-strator and Regional Director, Regional Bureau for Europe and the CIS, and Ms. Elizabeth Fong, Deputy Regional Director took part in the meeting. The participants exchanged views on the strategy of work and cooperation between UNDP and the European Commission and discussed new directions and achievements in establishing partnership with other UN agencies . They discussed new approaches in pursuing the programme UNDP 2001 in building a new UNDP. With this purpose the UNDP Resident Representatives discussed UNDP programmes, activities, processes, best practices and resourses that should be aligned with this strategic goal. |
The participants of the meeting in Bratislava. |
| Small and
Medium Business in Rostov Region |
|
The main purpose of this pilot project, to be delivered by UNDP and the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in conjunction with the administration of Rostov region, is to train small and medium business managers. The Ruspretec project sets out to train 300 business people and managers in its three-year gestation period. Around a dozen of new small businesses will export goods and work in close contact with the foreign participants in the project. The project should create about one thousand new jobs. Rostov region was chosen for the pilot project because it is one of Russia’s leaders in promoting small and medium enterprises and is sixth in the national rankings with 27,500 small businesses. Also, the region is one of Russia’s five biggest in terms of producing goods manufactured by small businesses. The project aims at training future specialists from graduates, young people and former administrators, retired sevicemen and existing company managers. |
This intends to help small and medium businesses to adapt to modern management methods, to achieve high productivity and to become more competitive in expanding business ties with large national and multinational corporations abroad. Since its start in 1988, Empretek has been implemented in many countries in Asia, Latin America and Africa, where it has set up Business Development Support Centres and helped 12,000 entrepreneurs to start up. The Rostov project drew on the wealth of accumulated expertise with account taken of local circumstances and conditions. The programme offers all of the necessary scope for mobilizing true business potential and helping the Rostov Regional Admini-stration to implement its strategy of support to small and medium businesses. On the whole, the region is becoming more business-minded, which inspires the hope, for positive results. |
