Romania, UNDP sign memorandum of understanding

A memorandum of understanding between Romania's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE) and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) was signed on Monday in Bucharest by MAE senior official Maria Magdalena Grigore and UNDP Assistant Secretary General Mirjana Spoljaric. "This document constitutes the legal basis on which the two entities - MAE and the United Nations Development Program - will continue their co-operation. After more than 47 years in which Romania has been a net beneficiary of assistance for the development under UNDP projects - and I would mention that the initial idea of the Magurele complex and the extension of the Bucharest subway network, as well as the external debt of Romania were among the first topics discussed with UNDP - we leave that period behind and move on to future co-operation. Romania is an emerging donor, which is why these new components of development assistance, humanitarian assistance, peace and security can be the prerequisites for achieving our foreign policy objectives, and in collaboration with UNDP - an entity operating in most of the countries that are facing difficulties - we can it achieves the purpose and objectives of our foreign policy," said Grigore. She added that in terms of development assistance, Romania's priorities are multiple and concern various regions. "If we talk about the Middle East, where in the 2019 plan of the ROAID Agency that is tasked with implementing the development assistance projects we had and still have projects regarding Jordan; if we talk about North Africa we have projects in Tunisia, we have projects in Egypt, we have assistance projects on different components, whether we are talking about education or disaster risk expertise, or the Romanian Electoral Authority, which is providing technical assistance to the counterpart institution in Jordan on various components and together with other entities from Romania, even if they are not subordinated to MAE, we bring our contribution either as an expertise or there are certain development assistance projects that consist of identifying the needs of the respective countries and here I would mention medical technology, computers, renovations, refurbishments of schools, hospitals, kindergartens. We are still at the beginning. Hopefully, this humanitarian component, and not only, especially development assistance, will be much better understood by my colleagues, the ambassadors," said Grigore. The memorandum was signed at the annual convention of the Romanian diplomacy in Bucharest that ends on Thursday. AGERPRES (RO - author: Florentina Peia, editor: Andreea Rotaru; EN - author: Corneliu-Aurelian Colceriu, editor: Adina Panaitescu)

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