Media Advisory: Invitation to signing ceremony between Swiss government and the MRC for new financial agreement
MEDIA ADVISORY
Invitation to signing ceremony between Swiss government and the MRC for new financial agreement
WHAT: Signing ceremony for new funds from Switzerland to the Mekong River Commission (MRC)
WHEN: 11 August 2016, 10:30am
WHERE: Mekong River Commission Office of the Secretariat, 184 Fa Ngoum Road, Vientiane, Lao PDR
WHO: Tim Enderlin, Director of Cooperation Laos and the Mekong Region for the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), Pham Tuan Phan, Chief Executive Officer of the MRC Secretariat, other representatives from SDC and the MRC
DETAILS:
Representatives of the media are cordially invited to attend the signing ceremony of a new funding agreement between the Swiss government and the Mekong River Commission. The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), will grant more than US$7 million to the MRC to implement its overall work in areas that range from climate change and adaptation to sustainable hydropower.
The agreement will be signed at a ceremony in the MRC’s Office of the Secretariat in Vientiane on Thursday, 11 August 2016, at 10:30am.
The contribution is part of a recent wave of donor funding to the MRC as it enters a new strategic cycle from 2016-2020 under a different organisational structure that operates within a new financial system known as the “basket fund”. The fund allows the MRC Secretariat to use existing funds for any of its prioritised activities therefore improving the implementation of projects that benefit more than 60 million people in the region.
The government of Switzerland has been one of the main development partners of the MRC and the new agreement is a sign of the government’s trust and commitment to the organisation’s work in regional cooperation and sustainable development.
Members of the media interested in attending the signing ceremony should confirm their attendance by no later than 9 August 2016.
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