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The completion at the end of biomass trade and export efforts of CIS countries to
this year of a first three-year opportunities; (b) capacity- simplify and align their
period of co-operation bet- building for civil servants and foreign trade handling
ween Russia and UNECE is a business associations in the procedures in accordance
good opportunity to draw evi- area of competitiveness and with the best available
dence-backed lessons that innovative policies, including practices. The first in a
have been learnt in order to commercialization of intel- series review of "Aid for
further increase the efficiency lectual property and promo- Trade" needs assessment
as well as the effectiveness of tion of public/private part- was successfully laun-
the use of our contribution. A nerships; and (c) increasing ched in Belarus evalua-
thorough review of the techni- the involvement of relevant ting existing regulatory
cal assistance activities spon- bodies in the development of and procedural trade
sored by Russia will enable us UNECE agricultural stan- environments in the
to make the necessary adjust- dards for commercial quality country and identifying also noted in projects related
ments and further improve the and assistance in their practi- the necessary measures to to the efficient use of energy
performance of implemented cal application by producers reduce barriers to trade flows. and water resources in Central
projects. and exporters. Slow but steady progress is Asia. An information exchan-
noticeable under the project ge network of experts was
The analysis undertaken by The biomass project took designed to establish inter- created from Russian-spea-
the UNECE Secretariat at the over from the previous activi- agency co-operation for trade king countries that currently
request of the Russian ties to establish sustainable facilitation and to build the maintains a special web-page
Federation with a contribution wood-pellet production and environment for a single win- on water issues --
by all the stakeholders, inclu- trade in the Russian dow for export and import www.CAWater-Info.org. A
ding government authorities Northwest Federal District. clearance in Russia. Its first legal and technical document
in recipient countries, imple- At present, the project has findings and recommenda- was produced to serve as the
menting partners and benefi- been expanded to include tions are already being used basis for a discussion in the
ciaries, clearly demonstrates Krasnodarskiy Krai, Bryansk by several institutions and region on dam safety regula-
that bringing a concrete pro- Oblast and the Republic of business operators in their tions. A recent exchange of
ject to success depends upon a Tatarstan. It also introduced related plans and strategies. opinion and information on
combination of several inse- new business ideas, such as There are certain indications dam safety took place in
parable factors. To make a the conversion of boiler hou- that if the project continues to Moscow, 16-23 August 2010,
positive impact a project must ses used for the heating of perform well it could be pic- as part of a wider training
not only be demand-driven municipal districts to the use ked up by the Customs Union, course prepared by the
and address pressing needs, of biomass, co-firing of bio- thus possibly expanding its UNECE Secretariat in part-
but also enjoy firm ownership mass in coal-fired power area of application to two nership with the Russian ZAO
inside a country as well as plants and -- last but not least more countries: Belarus and NTZ Gidrotehbezopasnosti
relying upon an established - algae biomass production. Kazakhstan. and partly co-fmanced by the
network of international Eurasian Development Bank.
experts. A robust response was given Quite a number of closely
to the rapidly growing interlinked projects have been
Technical assistance has beco-
The report clearly indicates demand in CIS countries for realized in the area of energy, me an indispensable element
that most of the projects have quality agricultural products. water management and envi-
of multi-faceted co-operation
met these criteria as well as UNECE expertise in standar- ronmental protection. The between Russia and the
bringing tangible results on dizing marketing quality for funds from the Russian contri- UNECE. Both partners belie-
the ground. The work carried fruit, vegetables, meat and bution sustained functioning ve that acute socio-economic
out under the projects made a egg products has been shared of the UNECE Working problems in the Pan-European
valuable input to capacity- with producers, traders and Group on Environmental region that mar societal
building at the national level regulatory authorities at Monitoring and Assessment advancement and sustainable
and catalyzed international workshops, seminars and (WGEMA). Its activities development must be effi-
co-operation at sub-regional, hands-on training courses. assisted CIS countries in rai-
ciently tackled. International
regional and international sing awareness and introdu- solidarity and co-operation is
levels. Two projects actually spurred cing good practices for streng-
one of the most effective ways
international co-operation on thening environmental moni- of doing it. Bearing this in
It is worth noting that three of a global level on such topical toring and information mana-
mind, the Russian Federation
the projects provoked such a issues as energy efficiency gement. Co-ordinated efforts
stands ready to continue fruit-
demand from the product end- and the development of Euro- have been undertaken to pro- ful co-operation with UNECE
users that could only have Asian transportation links. mote the ratification and with the aim of delivering
been satisfied by significantly implementation of the
rapid economic progress,
increasing their respective Important work is being car- Convention on Long-Range social welfare as well as peace
budgets. In particular, additio- ried out in the area of trade Transboundary Air Pollution
and prosperity to the nations
nal funding went to support contributing to the revitaliza- in Eastern Europe and Central of Europe.
projects aimed at: (a) the tion of the UNECE Asia. Marat Berdyev
development of sustainable Committee on Trade and
adding positively to the Concrete improvements are
1 2011 Diva 35
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