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External sources (not reviewed)

Following a discussion, the Executive Committee decided to approve the pilot project for validation of methyl formate as a blowing agent in the manufacture of polyurethane foam (phase I) in Brazil at a total cost of US $401,500 plus agency support costs of US $30,113 for UNDP, noting that the project was consistent with decision 55/43(e) and that it had been designed to disseminate the results from the validation of methyl formate technology in rigid and integral skin polyurethane foam applications globally, and on the understanding that the project would be the final validation project for methyl formate in the manufacture of rigid and integral skin polyurethane foams, and that approval of the project was without prejudice to consideration of the future funding request for phase II of the project by the Executive Committee.

The Subcommittee considered that the work in the following areas should be continued in the biennium 2011-2012: classification of desensitized explosives and oxidizing solids; issues related to dust explosion hazards; corrosivity criteria (consideration of pitting corrosion and suitability of tests C.1 for solids); further alignment of the criteria in the Globally Harmonized System with that of the Model Regulations; editorial revision of the chapters addressing skin corrosion/irritation; assessment of water-activated toxicity; implementation issues; further improvement of annexes 1, 2 and 3 of the Globally Harmonized System; and development of additional guidance for the labelling of small packagings.

These databases, including the Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa geospatial database, the African Climate Policy Centre’s climate change activities database and its agricultural commodity value-chain database and interface, form the core of the African Regional Spatial Data Infrastructure, with dedicated online applications and streamlined electronic delivery of products and services for targeted sectors including agriculture, climate change, carbon sequestration, water resources management and natural disasters and other regional challenges.

These 12 posts comprise one P-2 post of Associate Economic Affairs Officer under executive direction and management; one P-2 post under subprogramme 1, Linkages with the global economy, regional integration and cooperation; one P-2 post under subprogramme 2, Production and innovation; one P-2 post under subprogramme 3, Macroeconomic policies and growth; one P-2 post under subprogramme 5, Social development and equality; one P-2 post under subprogramme 12, Subregional activities in Mexico and Central America; one Local level post under subprogramme 13, Subregional activities in the Caribbean; and one P-4 temporary post, one P-2 post and three Local level posts under programme support.

Despite technical and financial constraints, Dominica had clearly demonstrated its willingness to work with hemispheric and international institutions.

The Commission was informed of initiatives that were being undertaken by Pacific island developing countries to protect biodiversity and the maintenance of ecosystem services, such as the Phoenix Islands Protected Area in Kiribati, the largest marine protected area in the Pacific Ocean, and the Coral Triangle Initiative, which covered a number of countries in the Asia-Pacific region, included the greatest extent of mangrove forests in the world and provided a critical spawning and juvenile growth area for tuna and other globally significant fish species.

These include, but are not limited to, talented young voices giving expression, through word and image, to their expectations of the Organization and those who lead its Member States; scholars, students and teachers who see in their work a discernible United Nations “impact”; college students who adapt the dynamism of the General Assembly’s possibilities to a “Global Model United Nations” that is entirely their own; non-governmental organizations and individuals who breathe new life into long-debated topics with the vigour of a vaster geographical base and greater opportunities for participation; Governments, research institutions and the media, which seek, and can now find, the recorded positions of Member States on key issues in readily accessible form; and the creative community, which sees in matters vital to the Organization’s agenda the chance to reach its audiences in a fashion that informs as it entertains.

The major challenge encountered in this process has been how to maintain UNESCO’s specificity, hence strength, as a specialized agency with its complex composites of intergovernmental committees with its own political and technical agendas in the promotion of international conventions, normative and standard-setting programmes to serve as exemplars in addressing major global issues in the fields of competence of the Organization.

A number of delegations supported the elaboration of a worldwide standard, noting that the production and trade of pomegranate extended beyond the Near East Region and that there would be significant market potential in view of growing interest in this commodity in many countries.

Dealing with market access for goods and services, providing a level playing field for agricultural trade and rebalancing the rules to create policy space for development activities as soon as possible would send a strong positive signal to the global economic community.

Efforts are envisaged to: increase women’s participation in economic activities; strengthen the role of women in economic life and boost their economic rights; support women facing the challenges of economic globalization; give women a larger share of loans and of funding for small and medium-sized enterprises; and offer women services that will allow them to reconcile their family duties and their role in economic development.

(m) To carry on in any part of the world all or any of the businesses of importers, exporters, general traders, commission agents, indent agents, forwarding agents, gem merchants, jewellers, goldsmiths, silversmiths, watch and clock makers, electro-platers, dressing-bag makers, carriers, tourist agents and contractors, warehousemen, tobacco and cigar merchants, agents for theatrical and opera box office, advertising contractors and agents, and holders of exhibition, and to buy, sell, import, export, manufacture, manipulate, turn to account and prepare for market, and deal in goods, wares, materials provisions, produce, merchandise, commodities, substances, articles and chattels of all kinds, both wholesale and retail, and to transact every kind of agency business and to undertake the business of manufacturers’ representatives.

The Committee recommends that the Report continue to feature such elements as economic and social analysis of the impacts of disasters, descriptions of regional cooperation and analysis of the role of space applications and information and communications technology (ICT) in disaster risk reduction, in addition to new elements, such as (a) information on champions for disaster risk reduction, (b) social and psychological analysis, (c) coverage of community practices vis-à-vis global perspectives, (d) analysis of a possible linkage between the Hyogo Framework for Action and the Millennium Development Goals and (e) linkage to the Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction.

In order to respond effectively in today’s fast moving global media environment, and to exploit the opportunities presented by the exponential growth of new communications platforms, the Secretariat will need to build up a multilingual communications skills base, particularly in flexible content creation, web and new media management, media production, and marketing.

Indeed, by adopting the Declaration on the midterm review of the Almaty Programme of Action, they had given renewed hope to the millions of people who dreamed of being able to transport their products as far as the sea and store them securely; to circulate their goods without restrictions; to exploit fully those sectors where they had a competitive advantage; to benefit from the opportunities offered by their full participation in global trade; and, lastly, to participate in, and enjoy all the benefits of, globalization, thereby escaping from the poverty imposed on them by the geographical situation of their country.

In addition, greater efforts must be made to generate a global strategy to prioritise and mainstream the development dimension into global processes, and in the relevant multilateral institutions in order to enable developing countries to benefit from the opportunities offered by globalisation and trade liberalisation, including through the creation of an enabling external economic environment for development which requires greater coherence between the international trading, monetary and financial systems that should be universal, open, equitable, non-coercive, rule-based, predictable and non-discriminatory.

14.4 During the 2014-2015 period, the programme is expected to continue to concentrate its efforts on the following six focus areas: (a) increasing women’s leadership and participation in all areas that affect their lives, including in political and economic areas; (b) increasing women’s access to economic empowerment and opportunities, especially for those who are most excluded, particularly women living in poverty; (c) preventing and eliminating violence against women and girls and expanding access to survivor services; (d) increasing women’s leadership in peace, security and humanitarian response; (e) strengthening the responsiveness of plans and budgets in the area of gender equality at all levels; (f) supporting the development of global norms, policies and standards on gender equality and women’s empowerment.

While some of these are fast becoming conventional sources of energy, at present, the low level of technological development and high costs associated with most of them limit the extent to which they can be incorporated into the global energy matrix on a substantial scale in the foreseeable future.

The increasing role of private standards in food safety governance in global agri-food value chains had served to further heighten concerns about the transparency and inclusiveness of the standard-setting process, not only in private organisations but also in Codex.

As Canada did not wish to suggest specific topics, it referred to the following indicative examples of sub-themes that could be addressed under the proposed “outward-looking” approach, bearing in mind that the number of sub-themes would have to be limited: crime, human rights and the rule of law (that would include both the role of criminal justice in protecting human rights and the role of human rights in the justice system, and the role of the rule of law in both); crime and international peace, security and reconstruction (post-conflict and post-disaster situations); crime and technological change, including cybercrime, as well as the use of technologies by organized criminal groups and for trafficking, among other crimes; and crime and trade, commerce and the global economy (that could cover specific areas of economic crime and possibly corruption).

While the overall impact of the global economic crisis on the Asian satellite industry was not severe, we were nevertheless able to turn our market-leading position to our advantage, increasing our focus on new business development activity.

The expected outcomes under this agenda item include: (a) the identification of emerging issues that merit policy-oriented attention; (b) the identification of progress achieved and gaps requiring priority attention with regard to the implementation of Commission mandates; (c) follow-up actions to major global conferences; (d) the articulation of Asian and Pacific perspectives on issues that will be addressed in major global forums in 2011; (e) the endorsement of the reports of the subsidiary bodies which have been held since the sixty-sixth session of the Commission; and (f) the identification of key issues to be taken up in meetings of subsidiary bodies in 2011.

The activities undertaken within this function will include: (a) producing country, regional and global-level technical and programme guidance covering the substantive areas in which UN-Women works, from ending violence against women to increasing women’s contributions to peace and security; (b) devising and coordinating multi-stakeholder, holistic country programmes that involve inter-agency participation and national partners in line with national and regional policies and priorities and that are consistent with UN-Women’s Strategic Plan; (c) ongoing, on-demand technical support to national partners and UNCTs in UN-Women’s core areas of work (e.g., support to NWMs; support to women’s organizations and networks; support to the Resident Coordinator and gender thematic groups; and support to reporting on and implementing CEDAW); and (d) the management and monitoring of global programmes and trust funds.

The Chairperson suggested that there were several ways in which the Commission could contribute: (a) by requesting, once more, that the Chairperson of the Commission make a statement at the annual ministerial review to highlight the contributions of population and development issues to the implementation of the internationally agreed goals and commitments in regard to global public health; (b) by inviting the President of the Council to address the Commission under item 6 of its agenda for the forty-second session in order to launch a discussion on the relevance of population issues to the attainment of the goals and commitments on global public health; and (c) by requesting the Secretariat to look into the possibility of organizing a side-event at the time of the annual ministerial review that would highlight the interrelations between population issues and global health.

It is recognized that the increasing interdependence of national economies in a globalizing world and the emergence of rules-based regimes for international economic relations have meant that the space for national economic policy, that is, the scope for domestic policies, especially in the areas of trade, investment and international development, is now often framed by international disciplines, commitments and global market considerations.

The serious engagement of Palestinian factions over the past month in a dialogue process mediated by Egypt has led to the establishment of five committees that are working on national reconciliation issues, the successful outcome of the Cairo international conference on the reconstruction of Gaza and the further efforts of the Palestinian Authority to improve socio-economic rehabilitation and reconstruction, especially in the face of the devastating global financial crisis.

These forward-looking statements are necessarily estimates reflecting the best judgment of SMIC’s senior management and involve significant risks, both known and unknown, uncertainties and other factors that may cause SMIC’s actual performance, financial condition or results of operations to be materially different from those suggested by the forward-looking statements including, among others, risks associated with cyclicality and market conditions in the semiconductor industry, the downturn in the global economy and the impact on China’s economy, intense competition, timely wafer acceptance by SMIC’s customers, timely introduction of new technologies, SMIC’s ability to capture growth opportunities in China, supply and demand for semiconductor foundry services, industry overcapacity, shortages in equipment, components and raw materials, orders or judgments from pending litigation, availability of manufacturing capacity and financial stability in end markets.