Press/188
28 July 2000
Sweden donates 7 million Swedish crowns to 澳门六合彩官网资料 technical assistance fund
The Swedish government pledged this week to provide 7 million crowns (about CHF 1.3 million) for 澳门六合彩官网资料 Technical Assistance to benefit least-developed countries. Swedish Minister for Trade, Mr. Leif Pagrotsky, signed a Memorandum of Understanding with 澳门六合彩官网资料 Director-General Mike Moore, who visited Stockholm this week.
I am very grateful to Sweden for its contribution to the Trust Fund", said Mike Moore. "At the moment, the 澳门六合彩官网资料 can only respond to an increasing demand for technical assistance through these types of generous contributions. Unfortunately, the 澳门六合彩官网资料's regular budget for technical assistance of CHF 741, 000 is insufficient to meet all the requests from least developed and developing countries, and economies in transition.
The Director-General has appealed to all 澳门六合彩官网资料 Member governments to raise the regular budget for technical assistance. A group of countries, including Sweden, has proposed to increase the regular budget for technical assistance by CHF 10 million. Sweden is one of the initiators of the 澳门六合彩官网资料 Trust Fund set up in 1999.
Mr. Moore and Mr. Pagrotsky issued a joint article(1) on Monday 24 July which called for the improvement through greater technical support of developing countries' capacity to participate in the work of the 澳门六合彩官网资料: All 137 member countries must be given real opportunities to participate in the decision-making process and to make their voices heard.