7 November 2008, Vienna/Beijing – During his official visit to China this week, the Director-General of UNIDO, Kandeh K. Yumkella met with the Deputy Director-General of the China CDM Fund Management Centre, CHEN Huan. The purpose of this meeting was to finalize a Memorandum of Understanding for Cooperation with regards to climate change and the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) between the two institutions.

Under the terms of the Memorandum, signed on 6 November 2008, UNIDO and the China CDM Fund Center will develop and implement a series of joint programmes and projects over the next three years, in line with the Fund’s operational programmes and UNIDO’s regulations, rules and procedures. The Centre is part of China’s Ministry of Finance.

Activities will focus on capacity building, mitigation of and adaptation to climate change, transition to a low carbon economy, corporate social responsibility with regard to climate change, expanding transfer and adoption of technology and CDM.

On 6 November 2008, Kandeh K. Yumkella also met with the Minister of Commerce of China, CHENG Deming, and the Ambassador of Sierra Leone, Abdul Karim Koroma, to finalize the Memorandum of Understanding for the establishment of a small hydropower plant on the Bankasoka River, in Port Loko, Sierra Leone. This agreement was signed at a press conference held on the same day in Beijing, China.

As the first trilateral technical assistance project of its kind between UNIDO and the Governments of China and Sierra Leone, this project is expected to pave the way for further cooperation under UNIDO’s ‘Lighting-Up Rural Africa Initiative’. The Memorandum of Understanding itself is the result of a series of negotiations started in 2007. Construction of the 1,000 kW (2 x 500 kW turbine systems) hydropower plant is foreseen to start in December 2008. The plant should be operational by the end of 2009.

The energy sector in Africa, particularly the rural energy sector, is characterized by lack of access, low purchasing power and over-dependence on traditional fuels, such as biomass, for meeting basic energy needs. UNIDO’s ‘Lighting-Up Rural Africa Initiative’ aims to build a number of small hydropower plants for rural electrification and productive uses in African countries with abundant small hydropower resources and, at the same time, large rural populations, which have yet to be connected to power grids.

For more information please contact:

Sajjad AJMAL
Representative and Head of UNIDO Regional Office
Beijing , China
Tel. : +86 6532 3440
Email: s.ajmal@unido.org