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Speech at the Workshop on Increasing Effectiveness of South-South Cooperation. By Mr. Zhao Yongli Assistant Director General, CICETE December 18th, 2008, New York. A Brief Introduction of CICETE.
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Speech at the Workshop on Increasing Effectiveness of South-South Cooperation By Mr. Zhao Yongli Assistant Director General, CICETE December 18th, 2008, New York
A Brief Introduction of CICETE • China International Center for Economic and Technical Exchanges (CICETE), as a non-profit organization directly under the Ministry of Commerce, was established on March 12th, 1983 under the approval of the State Council. Entrusted by the Ministry of Commerce, CICETE is the exclusive governmental partner for UNDP, UNIDO and UNV sponsored co-operational projects in China. • By the end of 2006, CICETE had successfully executed a cooperation program of 800 million dollars, arranging more than 800 projects in China that covered various fields, including economic reforms, agriculture, women and children, environment protection, etc. • For More information, please visit:www.cicete.org
South-South Cooperation Projects Executed by CICETE • According to CICETE’s statistics, in the previous four cycles of UNDP projects, there were about 100 projects that fallen into the category of South-South Cooperation with a total amount of 11.1 million dollars in NEX modality. The projects covered many fields, such as human development, economic reforms, environmental protection and resource management, regional cooperation and development, agriculture, etc, contributing greatly to China’s economic development as well as the friendly relations between China and the other developing countries.
Major Projects and Successful Cases • TRADP or GTI projects • New Silk Road Project • Lancang-Mekong Subregional Cooperation • CABC • SS_GATE • China SSC Network • ...................
CABC project • China-Africa Business Council (CABC) is a non-governmental organization jointly founded by UNDP,CICETE and Guangcai Program. Private businesses are the principal participants and beneficiaries of CABC. • PPP is a core value advocated by CABC. Actually, the aim of CABC is to provide a practical business tool as well as an effective platform for the private companies of China and Africa. By building upa network of national and international partners, the project aims to promote China-Africa cooperation and South-South cooperation and improve people's livelihood in both China and Africa. • In the past few years, CABC has effectively organized many delegations of Chinese entrepreneurs to Africa and received a large number of African delegations in China. Quite a few high level investment forums and business matching fairs are being organized. • CABC has established a very good partnering network within Africa, which laid a solid foundation for future Sino-African business cooperation in the future.
SS-Gate project SS-Gate is a project sponsored by CICETE and SU/SSC and implemented by SUAEE.SS-Gate project was launched with a purpose to make technical cooperation more transparent, efficient and cost-effective. With its own software and platforms, SS-GATE plans to set up more than 100 POs in the developing countries and the POs are asked to provide at least 100 pieces of technical information so that a large pool of knowledge and expertise is formed and every country, company or individual who is interested in a technology, may, thorough InterNet auction, price a technology and buy it.
SS-Gate: Straw into Bricks And already we have successful transactions though we are only at the pilot stage. Here I would like to give you an example. In China, there is an inventor who has invented the method of making bricks out of straw, and the straw bricks thus make is cheap, flexible and resist to quakes and water. He sells the technology via SS-Gate, and a businessman buys it and bring it to Ethiopia, where there are plenty of straws wasted everywhere, The straws are useless except for fuel. But with this technology, straws are made into bricks and the bricks are very fit for the environment of Ethiopia, which is good in quality, cheap in cost and friendly with the environment, The business man opened 4 factories there and employed 1500 local staff, which made the local government, the farmer workers and the investor all happy. It is really a huge success. Now GATE is only at its initial stage, but we believe the potentials of the project is huge. Once this could be developed at its full fledge, the whole TCDC modality may be changed completely.
China South-South Cooperation Network China South-South Cooperation Network was established in 1995 based on dozens of UNDP-sponsored application technology centers (such as solar power, small hydrogen and biogas, etc) that scatters around in China. With their respective application technologies, those centers all carry out TCDC activities under the coordination of CICETE. The significance of the Network is that those centers, once are recipients themselves, are now givers and active participants in SSC. Considering that UNDP has a large number of projects all over the world, the replicability of such networks are relevant and could be considered as a good example to show how UNDP sponsored recipients could be organized to sustain themselves and contribute to SSC after UNDP withdraw. The Network holds annual meetings, which are usually proposed by its secretariat in CICETE and organized by members in rotation. Members are expected to exchange information, achievements and good practices with each other at the meeting. With years of development, now most of the centers are sustainable and could provide assistance to the other developing countries in their respective field, such as bio-gas, small hydro-power and solar energy, etc.
China SSC Network:"Lighten-Up Africa Project" • Cooperated with UNDIO, the small hydropower center plans boost economic development of Africa by promoting the application of small hydropower technologies. Known as the “Lighten Up Africa” initiative, the project plans to construct 100 village tiny hydropower stations in the rural areas of 10 African countries, such as Cameroon, Ethiopia, Kenya, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria, Sara Leon, Uganda, Zimbabwe and Zambia. The project would directly benefit 100 thousand people in the rural African areas by providing electricity to the rural residents there. • In fact, “Lighten-Up Africa” imitative is also an trial project that combines both bilateral and multilateral cooperation modalities. Site selection and feasibility studies were carried out by CICETE, UNDIO, the Small Hydropower Center and the African Governments in the initial stage, which was a typical multilateral approach. However, after that, the Foreign Aid Department of the Ministry of Commerce is expected to step in and carry out bilateral cooperation with those countries respectively with Sara Leon as the first pilot country. Thus, foreign aid funds were introduced to back up the initiative with the expertise of CICETE, UNIDO and small hydropower center. The perfect combination is expected to create more welfare for the African people.
Regional and Subregional Projects • TRADP------------Tumen Secretariat • NSR-----------NSR Mayor's Forum • China-Vietnam Cross Border Economic Cooperation Zone-----------"one city in two countriesz"
Successful Experiences and Problems • From the above mentioned examples, we could see that South-South Cooperation is effective and means a lot to the developing countries. • PPP and involvement of all stake holders • capacity building • Market Mechanism • Country/city/community leadership and ownership • effective coordination • .........
Challenges and Problems 1. Lack of funds. South-South cooperation, as the cooperation among poor brothers, is always embarrassed by the lack of funds. Despite the fund raising activities launched by CICETE and other agencies from the developing countries as well as the UN, funding remains the bottleneck to its full-fledged development. 2. Lack of effective coordination. Most of the SSC projects lacks efficient coordination, whether on a domestic or international perspective. Practitioners of South-South Cooperation generally find it hard to persuade governments and private partners to be involved. The planning, implementation, as well as theoretical research, experience sharing and monitoring work needs to be stressed to enhance its sustainability. Such is the case for China and most of the developing countries. 3. Lack of efficient partnering strategies and actions.Most of the SSC practitioners are not able to establish an effective and long term cooperation partnership with foreign counterparts. More often than not, the partnering are difficult due to lack of information and exchanges.
Our plans ahead • Establish China South-South Cooperation Development Center • Support SS-Gate and CABC • Rely on embassies, UN, Ministry of Commerce • Advocate PPP and triangular cooperation • Strengthen partnering with other international agencies
Our Suggestions • Developed countries shall provide more funds.The developed countries to care, understand and support SSC. The developed countries shall abide by the promises they have made and increase their ODA level. In economic crises, the developing countries and SSC would often be sacrificed first and we shall not allow that to happen.
UN to play a more important role in SSC, ask UN to incorporate SSC as a mainstream business in development cooperation and strengthen the SU/SSC in terms of resource mobilization and consolidation. UNDP country offices, as a direct bridge between UNDP and the recipient countries, shall strengthen their coordination and fund raising efforts, and enhance their effectiveness in project management. Our suggestions
Our suggestions • Update and strengthen the pivotal country focal point system. The pivotal country focal point system is very helpful in SSC liaison, however, now it is not updated and we would like to call on the countries as well as SU/SSC to update the information and enhance its operational effectiveness. Meanwhile, the WEB of the South shall also be updated and linked with all the practitioners of SSC from various developing countries so that an effective on-line information sharing system could be established.
Thank You : )
