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UN commission signs unprecedented water accord with Republic of Korea

UN commission signs unprecedented water accord with Republic of Korea

The United Nations regional commission for development in Asia today announced it had reached an historical agreement with the national water utility of the Republic of Korea to promote regional cooperation in water resources and risk management in natural disasters.

In the resulting Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) and the Korea Water Resources Corporation (K-water) agreed to identify opportunities for direct investment and training related to water resources within the region.

“This is the first MOU to be signed between UNESCAP and a national enterprise from a member country of UNESCAP,” said UNESCAP Executive Secretary Kim Hak-Su.

The agreement, which was signed by Kim Hak-Su and the President of K-water, Kwak Kyul-ho, at the Commission’s Headquarters in Bangkok, also covers regional risk management to reduce the impact of disasters such as floods, droughts, typhoons in the Asia-Pacific region.

The risk management activities are expected to build on existing collaborative projects, such those within the UNESCAP alliance with the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) on typhoons as well as with the Network of Asian River Basin Organizations.

The MOU comes four days after UNESCAP signed an MOU with Microsoft Corporation for the UN’s first information and communications technology training centre for government officials in the Asian and Pacific region in Incheon, Republic of Korea.