The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations promoting industrial development for the sake of poverty reduction, inclusive globalization and environmental sustainability.
It was established in 1966 as an UN program. Since 1986, UNIDO has been a specialized agency of the United Nations and currently comprises 172 member states. The organization is headquartered in Vienna and maintains a field network of 49 regional and country offices around the world.
In December 2021, Gerd Müller, formerly Germany’s Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development, was appointed as the new Director General of UNIDO for a period of four years.
The mission of UNIDO is to promote and accelerate inclusive and sustainable industrial development in member states. UNIDO’s mandate is fully reflected in SDG-9, which calls to “build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation”.
The Lima Declaration, signed by all UNIDO Member States in December 2013 to achieve inclusive and sustainable industrial development (ISID), recognizes that industrialization is a driver of development as it increases productivity, contributes to job creation and generates income. Moreover, industrialization offers opportunities for social inclusion by means of empowerment of women and creating decent employment for youth. The Lima Declaration states that ISID recognizes that “economic growth is driven by entrepreneurship, continuous economic diversification, growing trade relations, industrial upgrading and technological innovation”.
The Abu Dhabi Declaration, signed in November 2019, further underscores UNIDO’s mandate and highlights the importance of the private sector for achieving the SDGs. It also draws attention to the emergence of new technologies under the Fourth Industrial Revolution, offering tremendous opportunities to advance economic growth and human well-being and to protect the environment.
UNIDO’s projects and programs at a glance: https://open.unido.org/
Procurement opportunities at UNIDO: https://procurement.unido.org/
UNIDO established its first Investment Promotion Services in 1976, which later became Investment and Technology Promotion Offices (ITPOs). Since then, nine ITPOs have been established in the Global North and South, constituting the ITP Network:
Aligned with UNIDO’s mandate of inclusive and sustainable industrial development, the ITPOs aim at bridging global investment and technology gaps by
The ITPOs work closely together for a greater impact of joint investment and technology promotion activities. The network draws on the unique strengths and competencies of each ITPO.
In order to establish strong relationships between investors and technology suppliers and their potential partners, the ITP Network continuously
Hereby, the ITPOs act as impartial advisors and brokers across the entire investment promotion and technology transfer lifecycles, while the ITP Network Secretariat in Vienna ensures effective networking, information and knowledge sharing amongst the ITPOs.
The ITP Network continues to expand and diversify its presence and services, always with the overarching objective of accelerating inclusive and sustainable industrial development.
(from left to right: Hyundong Cho (Head of ITPO Korea), Sergey Korotkov (Head of ITPO Russia), Diana Battaggia (Head of ITPO Italy), Rolf Steltemeier (Head of ITPO Germany), Weixi Gong (Chief, UNIDO ITP Division and ITP Network Coordinator), Bernardo Calzadilla-Sarmiento (Managing Director, UNIDO Directorate of Digitalization, Technology and Agribusiness), Xiaolei Zhao (Head of ITPO Shanghai), Yuko Yasunaga (Head of ITPO Japan), Yabin Wu (Head of ITPO Beijing)
