Partnerships for advancing industry and the 2030 Agenda, focus of UNIDO’s Seventh ISID Forum

“We must make use of innovative approaches to leverage and coordinate different streams of resources to support countries in achieving their development goals,” said UNIDO Director General LI Yong, at the opening of the ISID Forum. “We need to pool together domestic public resources, private business and finance, and development cooperation. For UNIDO, this collaborative model takes form primarily in the PCP.”

There are currently 10 PCPs − Cambodia, Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Egypt, Kyrgyzstan, Morocco, Peru, Rwanda, Senegal and Zambia − all at different stages of development and covering different geographical regions.

High-level government representatives discussed national efforts to advance industrial development. As part of the first tier of PCPs, Admasu Nebebe, Ethiopia’s State Minister of Ministry of Finance and Economic Cooperation, stated “The PCP has helped us coordinate our efforts within the national government, among different ministries”. “We have invested significant national resources towards the establishment of integrated agro-industrial parks; we have mobilized US$2 billion towards the establishment of these parks.”

Peru’s Minister of Production, Rocío Ingred Barrios Alvarado, talked about the development of sustainable industrial zones as important for Peru’s productivity, competitiveness and economic ambitions, and efforts to safeguard the environment. “The PCP has helped us to learn from the experiences of other countries; it’s a form of alliance interconnecting us.”

Adama Ndiaye from Senegal’s Ministry of Industry and Small and Medium Industry, spoke on his experience with the PCP as one of the first pilot countries of this programme. “The PCP has helped us to catalyze partners and resources towards flagship industrial projects. Of course, the Government of Senegal has invested significant national resources to establish the country’s first integrated industrial platform, Diamniadio, but now we are mobilizing additional resources for the park’s expansion, notably from the China Eximbank.”

The event also highlighted how different entities and various partners contribute to the industrialization process. The African Union Commissioner Albert M. Muchanga discussed Africa- wide strategic frameworks that are in place to guide such efforts. From the financial institution side, Yousef Ibrahim Al-Bassam highlighted how the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa (BADEA) works to support economic transformation on the African continent.

Côte d'Ivoire’s national commitment to the new PCP was underlined through an Exchange of Letters between DG Li and Souleymane Diarrassouba, the Minister of Trade and Industry, as part of a signing ceremony held at the end of the event. Government representatives from Egypt and Rwanda, also part of the newest tier of PCP countries, took the opportunity to speak from the audience on how they envision that this new programme will support the implementation of their development goals. Other Member States supporting or interested in the PCP also intervened from the floor and voiced their support for the PCP.

In the spirit of partnerships for ISID and the Sustainable Development Goals, a joint declaration on enhanced collaboration to promote information and communication technologies (ICT) in developing countries was signed between UNIDO and Huawei, a global provider of ICT infrastructure and smart devices, at the event.

The Seventh ISID Forum was moderated by journalist and television news anchor, Sarah Kelly, and featured government representatives of PCP countries, as well as representatives of international and regional organizations, the business sector and other development partners.

Find out more about the event here.

For more information on the Programme for Country Partnership, please contact: Ciyong ZOU

Director

Department of Programmes, Partnerships and Field Integration c.zou@unido.org