The new Director-General of the UN Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO), Mr. Li Yong, on Friday vowed more effective services to alleviate poverty and assist developing countries to improve their industrial sectors.
Mr. Li, who was confirmed on Friday, said the agency faced many challenges and expressed his readiness to address the issues at stake.
“We are going to provide more effective services to support the different needs of different regions and countries,” said Mr. Li, who was the former Vice-Minister of Finance in China.
He said the most disadvantaged areas need to boost their industrial sectors, while
middle-income countries need to improve their level of industrial development.
Mr. Li was voted in by UNIDO’s 53-member Industrial Development Board and confirmed at a special session of the organisation’s General Conference in Vienna, Austria.
He will serve an initial four-year term.
He takes over from Mr. Kandeh Yumkella of Sierra Leone, who led the organisation from
2005, and who is now the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s Special Representative for Sustainable Energy for All, and CEO of the Initiative.
