UNIS/INF/200
2 April 2007

FAO Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia and FAO Shared Services Centre Established in Budapest

VIENNA, 2 April (UN Information Service) -- The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations and the Government of Hungary have signed an agreement to establish the FAO Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia and the FAO Shared Services Centre in Budapest, Hungary. The FAO Subregional Office for Central and Eastern Europe has already been successfully operating in Budapest for 11 years, with a continuously increasing number of staff and tasks.

FAO Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia

For Hungary, the move will mean that an important FAO office, covering Europe and Central Asia, will be operating in Budapest in the same building that the Subregional Office has operated in to date. The Government of Hungary will renovate the property in Benczúr utca, which has housed the FAO Subregional Office for Central and Eastern Europe, making the premises suitable for both offices to be in operation side by side.

FAO Shared Services Centre

The Shared Services Centre will carry out various administrative services for the FAO European, Middle Eastern and African regions (in the fields of management, human resources policy, financial, travelling, acquisitions, etc.) According to its plan, FAO will also be operating two other Service Centres (in Bangkok and in Santiago de Chile) to cover Asia and America. A coordination centre will be established in Rome. The relocation of the FAO Shared Services Centre to Budapest will be implemented in three phases between 2007 and 2009.

Partnership Framework Agreement

The agreement concluded between the FAO and the Hungarian Government also includes a Partnership Framework Agreement, which is to be filled with content as of 2008 on the basis of the concrete FAO member state requirements. Accordingly, Hungary will contribute to the implementation of actions and projects serving food safety, sustainable rural development and the Millennium Development Goals, and will ensure scholarship possibilities for students from less developed countries.

The agreement was signed on 27 March 2007, with the personal participation of FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf, in the presence of Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány.

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