Opening of FAO Subregional Office for Central and Eastern Europe
Zbigniew S. Karnicki, Subregional Office for Central and Eastern
Europe, FAO UN, Budapest
The
new FAO’s Sub-regional Office for Central and Eastern Europe in Budapest
have been formally opened on 10 September 1996 by the Director General
of FAO Mr. J.Diouf and the Hungarian Minister for Agriculture Mr. Laszlo
Lakos. The office is located at Benczur utca 34 in the nice VI th district
of Budapest. Opening of this office concluded decentralization process
of FAO structure, the process which was intensified during the last two
years and encompass all geographic areas. The main role of the Sub-regional
Office is to:
-
monitor and report to HQ the major developments and trends in the region
-
identify priority action area for the Organization
-
provide technical assistance to the Member countries within the area of
technical expertise available
-
provide administrative support to FAO’s activities in the region .
The Sub-regional office when fully staffed will employ 16 person in which
9 are professionals from the field of agriculture policy advise, livestock,
farm management, information systems, food standards and nutrition as well
as environment management.
FAO is fully aware about the great knowledge accumulated in the Sub-region,
practically in all of the above mentioned fields. Therefore the most appropriate
approach in FAO’s work in the Sub-region would be to create conditions
for thorough discussion and sharing this knowledge among the Member countries.
In efficient implementation of such an approach it is necessary to utilize
modern information systems and assist member countries in the development
of their own systems, applying common standards. With this in mind, the
Sub-regional Office as one of the very first activity organized in cooperation
with the Institute of Scientific and Technical Information for Agriculture
in Nitra (Slovakia) the 1st FAO/Central and Eastern European Workshop “AGROINFOS’96”,
which brought together leaders from Central and European Countries, including
Russia responsible for agriculture information and cooperation with FAO.
This type of workshops will continue with purpose not only to exchange
information but also to provide needed training, particularly in the use
of modern electronic means of searching for information but its dissemination
as well.
Another very important area of activities of the Office is provision
of policy advise in agriculture sector. In this regard an Ad hoc Expert
Consultation is planned to take place in Warsaw (Poland) to discuss where
FAO’s comparative advantage can be utilized at the best , particularly
in the view of significant involvement of other organizations like European
Union (programs PHARE and TACIS), OECD, the World Bank etc.
Transboundary animal diseases again, after short brake, are becoming
an urgent and very serious problem in many CEE countries. In this connection
close cooperation with the European Commission for Foot and Mouth Diseases
is envisaged.
There is also a very broad area of activities linked to the World Trade
Organization Agreement, particularly related to international trade in
food products. Sanitary and Phytosanitary Agreement as well as Technical
Barriers to Trade Agreements, known as SPS and TBT are of great importance
to Central and Eastern European Counties as all of them are willing to
expand their markets for agriculture products. To meet the requirements
of the above mentioned agreements is a great challenge and Sub-regional
Office with strong support from Nutrition Division of Headquarters will
assist Member countries to the extend possible, considering this area as
one of the top priorities.
Those readers who are interested to know more about the Sub-regional
Office are invited to contact it directly by phone (+36)-1- 461.20.00,
fax:(+36)-1-561.70.29
e-mail: zbigniew.karnicki@field.fao.org
or just by mail addressed to:
FAO Subregional Office for Central and Eastern Europe
Benczur utca 34,
H-1068 Budapest ,
Hungary.
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