The government will offer $830,000 in fiscal 1999 to the United Nations Industrial Development Organization in appreciation of its administrative reform efforts, Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura said Thursday.
Komura conveyed the decision to visiting UNIDO chief Carlos Alfredo Magarinos during a meeting Thursday at the Foreign Ministry, a ministry official said.
Komura praised Magarinos' efforts to streamline the activities of UNIDO -- an international development organ for developing nations -- including a 20 percent budget cut and concentration of financial resources on a smaller number of projects, the official said.
Japan suspended its contributions to UNIDO in fiscal 1998 to urge the organization to carry out administrative reforms.
Magarinos expressed gratitude for Japan's extensive economic support for Africa,especially for its recent aid initiative under the Second Tokyo International Conference on African Development held last October, the official said.
In related news, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Sadako Ogata renewed her resolve Thursday to assist the return of Kosovar refugees and their resettlement, a Foreign Ministry official said.
During her meeting Thursday with Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura, Ogata expressed concern about housing for the refugees as winter approaches, saying some 750,000 refugees have so far returned to find their homes destroyed, the official said.
Komura said he hopes the 500 temporary houses Japan has offered will help refugees get through the winter, the official said. The first shipment is scheduled next week, and the houses will be set up by the end of September.
Japan has announced a comprehensive aid package for Kosovar refugees, featuring a total of $200 million in humanitarian and financial support for international aid bodies, refugee-hosting countries and the return of the refugees.