Qatar Emphasizes Importance of Implementing IAEA’s Technical Cooperation Program in Supporting Developing Countries

Vienna, The State of Qatar stressed the importance of implementing the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) technical cooperation program for 2023, in supporting developing countries through the use of nuclear technologies, in the fields of health and agricultural care, as well as water resources management, environmental protection and harnessing nuclear energy to generate electricity. This came in the State of Qatar's statement delivered by HE Secretary-General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Dr. Ahmed bin Hassan Al Hammadi, who is also the Governor of Qatar to the IAEA, in regard to strengthening the agency's technical cooperation activities for 2023. His Excellency expressed the State of Qatar's gratitude for the existing cooperation between its national institutions and IAEA's Department of Technical Cooperation, to sustain the momentum of implementing cooperation projects between Qatar and the agency. In January 2024, the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change organized a national sympo sium on the peaceful usage of atomic energy, attended by the State of Qatar's administrative officer of IAEA's Technical Cooperation Program, along with several Qatari officials from the higher education sector, Al Hammadi pointed out. Within the symposium, there was an extensive discussion of the cooperation program and the framework program for projects in the State of Qatar, providing financing for projects and the best ways to confront implementation obstacles, he added. HE Secretary-General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed his satisfaction with the high program implementation rates, which reached 97.5 percent of the target number, explaining that nutrition, agriculture and health programs accounted for the largest share within a year. The implemented projects included 150 countries and territories through 1,100 cooperation projects, he added. In order for the Technical Cooperation Program to maintain its effectiveness in providing technical support to countries, the General Secretariat sha ll continue to enhance and develop methods of its joint work with the member states that benefit from the program, through consultation on aspects of the programs to be implemented and discovering new horizons for this cooperation, in a way that advances the technical expertise of countries and achieve maximum benefit, Al Hammadi added. His Excellency expressed the State of Qatar's support for increasing the resources of IAEA's Technical Cooperation Fund (TCF), at a rate similar to the rate if increase in resources allocated to non-promotional activities in the general budget, affirming the importance of maintaining a balance between promotional activities and other agency activities, stipulated in its statute. Source: Qatar News Agency