Damascus - The Syrian government on Tuesday signed at the State Planning Commission three documents for raising the budget of three development programs with the Spanish government and the UNDP, with an overall sum of USD 555,000 donated by the Spanish government.
The first document was signed by Minister of Information Dr. Mohsen Bilal, Chairman of the State Planning Commission Dr. Taisir al-Raddawi, the Ambassador of Spain in Damascus Mr. Juan Serrat, and the UNDP Resident Representative Ismail Wild al-Sheikh Ahmad. The document stipulates for raising the budget of a project for bolstering the capabilities of young journalists by USD 38,000.
The other two documents were signed by Dr. al-Raddawi, Mr. Serrat and Mr. Wild al-Shiekh Ahmad, providing USD 388,000 to the Creativity and Business Development Center project at al-Rakka governorate and USD 129,000 for the technical and logistic support project of the State Planning Commission.
Dr. al-Raddawi underlined the importance of these projects, pointing out that they are currently being carried out by the UNDP and that the new documents are an addition to these projects' budgets provided as a donation from the Spanish government.
For his part, Ambassador Serrat affirmed that these projects are steps in Spain's cooperation with the Syrian government for supporting development, and that the Spanish government is focusing on cooperation in fields of health and supporting local administration and municipalities, in addition to development projects.
In turn, Mr. Wild al-Shiekh Ahmad underlined the increasing number of cooperation projects between Syria and the UNDP, stressing the importance of increasing the budgets of signed projects.
By H. Sabbagh / Mazen
© SANA (Syria Arab News Agency) 2008
