Volume X - Issue IV - April 2008
Other News Affecting Projects & PM
New York City Turns Green Reported by Larry Suda in New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, former President Bill Clinton, and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Alphonso Jackson announced in late February the first-ever sustainability partnership with the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA), the nation's largest public housing authority. This new partnership will allow NYCHA to become more energy efficient and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, helping to fulfill the goals of PlaNYC, the Mayor's long-term sustainability agenda. The partnership among the City, the Clinton Climate Initiative (CCI) and HUD will help provide access to energy-efficient and clean-energy technologies at reduced prices. NYCHA's comprehensive plan includes building retrofits as well as boiler and heating system modernizations that will lead to a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from NYCHA's 2,600-plus buildings citywide. The Mayor, President and Secretary Jackson were joined by NYCHA Chairman Tino Hernandez at the Eastchester Community Center in the Bronx, a NYCHA-sponsored facility where recreational, cultural and educational programs are offered to residents and the surrounding community.
"The New York City Housing Authority is home to more than 408,000 low and moderate-income residents throughout the five boroughs. These energy saving measures will help the Authority save money, and the environmental impact of these measures will result in cleaner, healthier air for the residents living in public housing," said Mayor Bloomberg (pictured). "These environmentally-friendly enhancements will help us do our part to put the brakes on global warming and they will also help us build a greener, greater New York." Two years ago, NYCHA implemented an ambitious program by investing $2 billion to modernize and upgrade its aging housing stock. And now, by implementing environmentally sound strategies, NYCHA will contribute significantly to the sustainability of the City and its residents, and it will become a national dealer on green issues among public housing agencies. EBRD provides 150 million euro loan to Ukrenergo New transmission line brings reliable power supply to central Ukraine and its capital Proceeds from the loan, the Bank’s largest transaction in the power sector of Ukraine to date, will enable Ukrenergo to construct 750 kV high voltage transmission lines, linking central regions of the country with its western regions which have surplus generation capacities. The total length of the new transmission lines will be around 488 kilometres. The project, in which the EBRD and the European Investment Bank (EIB) jointly contribute about seventy per cent of total cost by making identical size loans, is a crucial for the entire Ukrainian electricity system.
EBRD President Jean Lemierre (pictured) said: “The realisation of this Project will have a positive impact for Ukrenergo, for all the other participants of the Ukrainian wholesale market and for the country as a whole”. The transaction will help reduce losses and allow supply from existing excess generation capacity in western Ukraine to reach Kiev city and the Kiev and neighbouring oblasts. It will also reduce Ukraine’s dependence on imported fuels and help the energy sector link up with the Union for the Co-ordination of Transmission of Electricity (UCTE) - the association of transmission system operators in continental Europe and eventually integrate with the EU’s internal energy market. As this project contributes to reduction of gas consumption in the country, it qualifies for European Union funds to finance the technical, economic and environmental due diligence. The UK Department for International Development (DFID) provides Technical Cooperation funds for project preparation. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is the biggest financial investor in Ukraine. As of January 2008 it had committed over €3.2 billion through more than 161 projects. Source: EBRD Press Release release, February 28, 2008 NOAA and World Bank announce Joint Program to Help The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the World Bank announced on 28 February that they have signed an agreement to work together to help developing nations manage water resources, combat drought, and measure changes in climate. Projects are expected to take place initially in the Latin American region, notably in Argentina, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru, while other projects could be launched in other parts of the world. According to the World Bank, the scope and scale of many coastal problems require international alliances and solutions. This new partnership will allow NOAA scientists and resource managers and the World Bank to more readily assist global communities in building resilience to climate extremes. Specifically, the assistance can help establish end-to-end early warning systems, enhance and protect local ecosystems, and realize the benefits of an integrated earth observing system.
"This initiative enables us to marry financial resources and technical resources – bringing them together for sustainable development," said Dr. William J. Brennan (pictured), NOAA’s deputy assistant secretary for international affairs. "This helps us realize our mutual goals to decrease suffering from natural disasters and bolster economies while sustaining our environment. Together these efforts seek to improve livelihoods and reduce global poverty." "We have always believed that good development is based on solid partnerships," said Katherine Sierra, World Bank vice president of sustainable development. "Today’s agreement allows us to work more easily with an important partner in development and to bring the complementary strengths of our two organizations together for this common cause." The new Memorandum of Understanding will serve as an umbrella for future projects like the one NOAA’s National Weather Service is discussing with the city of Medellin, Colombia, to install a reliable flash flood guidance system. Other projects under discussion include:
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, an agency of the U.S. Commerce Department, is dedicated to enhancing economic security and national safety through the prediction and research of weather and climate-related events and information service delivery for transportation, and by providing environmental stewardship of our nation's coastal and marine resources. Through the emerging Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS), NOAA is working with its federal partners, more than 70 countries and the European Commission to develop a global monitoring network that is as integrated as the planet it observes, predicts and protects. http://www.noaa.gov. The World Bank Group is a multilateral development institution and one of the world’s largest sources of financial and technical assistance to developing countries around the world. Comprised of 185 member governments, its primary focus is on helping the World’s poorest people and the poorest countries. The World Bank Group uses its financial resources, its staff and extensive experience to help developing countries reduce poverty, increase economic growth and improve their quality of life. http://www.worldbank.org. UN announces Jobs Project in Haiti The United Nations peacekeeping mission to Haiti has announced it will fund six projects that are expected to eventually provide temporary jobs to more than 7,000 people living in the notorious Cité Soleil and Martissant neighbourhoods of the capital, Port-au-Prince.
In a press conference held on 27 February 2008 in Port-au-Prince, representatives of the mission – United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti - known as MISUSTAH said at least $522,000 will be spent on the projects, which will focus on street paving, sanitation and rebuilding and improving public spaces. Cité Soleil and Martissant have long been renowned as centres of high crime, poverty and unemployment, and the projects aim to break the link between the phenomena. Both former gunmen and the victims of violence are expected to benefit from the jobs produced by the projects. Adama Ndao, a MINUSTAH official specializing in trying to reduce community violence, told the press conference that the projects are scheduled to begin at the start of next month. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) will help carry out the projects, along with the municipalities of Port-au-Prince and Cité Soleil. For more information, visit http://www.un.org/Depts/dpko/missions/minustah/index.html. Leading Japanese Strategist reviews changing conditions Reported by PMForum from Tokyo
Mr. Jitsuro Terashima, one of Japans’ top global strategists, delivered an interesting and important keynote speech at the International Project & Program Management Symposium Tokyo 2008 in Tokyo, Japan on Monday, March 10. The conference was held at Tower Hall, Funabori in Tokyo. The sponsor of the two-day project management symposium was the Project Management Association of Japan (PMAJ). Mr. Terashima (pictured) presented a review of recent economic trends affecting Japan and the Sea of Japan sphere of influence, in his presentation entitled “A Strategic View of Project Management.” Some of the main points of his presentation included the following:
Mr. Jitsuro Terashima, Strategist, is Managing Director of Mitsui & Company, and CEO and President of the Mitsui Global Strategic Studies Institute in Tokyo, Japan. He also serves as Chairman of The Japan Research Institute and Professor at Waseda University's Graduate School of Asia-Pacific Studies.
Mr. Terashima obtained a master’s degree in political science at Waseda University, Tokyo and joined Mitsui & Company, Japan’s leading trading company, in 1973. He has extensive experience in the company’s global operations, and global strategic studies for the company and Japan in general. He was in the United States for 16 years; following a stint at the Brookings Institution, he was Head of Strategic Planning at Mitsui’s New York Office and General Manager of their Washington DC Office. Mr. Terashima has been in his current position at Mitsui since 1999. The “International Project & Program Management Symposium Tokyo 2008 – “In pursuit of organizational project management value,” was held in Tokyo, Japan during 10-11 March 2008. The symposium was sponsored by the Project Management Association of Japan. The Program Director and Chairman for the IP&PMS Tokyo 2008 was Dr. Hiroshi Tanaka, president of PMAJ. Mr. Tetsuhiro Yamane, PMP, was Project Manager.
The national Project Management Association of Japan (PMAJ) was born in 2005 thorough the integration of the Japan Project Management Forum (JPMF – pioneer of Japan’s project management society) and Project Management Professionals Certification Center (PMCC). PMAJ has 3,000 individual and 110 corporate members from all branches of the Japanese industry and governmental agencies. PMAJ offers its own standard “The Guidebook of Project and Program Management for Enterprise Innovation – P2M” and P2M based certification system. For more information, visit http://www.pmaj.or.jp/. Indian Government promotes PPP route for social sector Reported by Raju Rao in Chennai The use of PPP (Public private partnership) in promoting infrastructure development in India is attracting a lot of attention. However this is more or less restricted to areas like Transport ( Roads / Airports etc ) and Power . The Central government as part of its effort to promote this concept now provides interest - free loans to state governments to prepare viable PPP projects, in addition to meeting a fifth of project cost through a viability gap fund. The recent announcement of using the PPP route for schools and hospitals may be finance minister P Chidambaram’s most ambitious exercise to unlock the government’s brand value and channelise private investment to where the country needs it most i.e. education and healthcare. The finance ministry would soon come out with a special scheme to let the private sector run government schools and hospitals, besides setting up new ones. At present private sector initiatives have been successful for hospitals as well primary and secondary school education. However this has not been used by the public at large as the private facilities are unaffordable to many. The current scheme would be designed to offer decent returns on investment for the private sector as the government acknowledges that corporate houses can’t be expected to do philanthropy at the national level. The terms have to be attractive to rope in private sector as a solution to the country’s poor healthcare and education sectors. Roping in the private sector will also ensure leakages are limited as the private party would be accountable for the funds it receives from the government as well as the amount it raises using state assets. This is a significant advantage for use of the PPP route as most social sector projects and fund allocations suffer from serious credibility on whether the benefits at all reach the consumer. A notable example is the Golden quadrilateral project implemented by the Government where vested interests were stronger than whistle blowing action. The use of PPP in social sector could take quite some time to get accepted as Indian business and government are still not familiar with these models especially in the primary and secondary school sector. Other countries for e.g the U.K has successfully deployed it for social sector projects like schools and hospitals and therefore could serve as excellent examples in reducing the learning curve. Source: India Brand Equity Foundation www.ibef.org. UK joins global nuclear energy partnership Reported by Miles Shepherd in the UK The UK will take part in the global development of secure nuclear energy.Business Secretary John Hutton announced in late February that the UK has accepted an invitation to join the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP). Mr Hutton signed the agreement during a two day visit to Washington DC, where he also met with US energy companies to discuss potential investment in new nuclear projects in the UK. The signing of GNEP and the meeting with US energy companies followed John Hutton's recent announcement to invite proposals for new nuclear as part of the UK energy mix. The UK is the twenty-first country to join the international partnership, which promotes responsible nuclear development while reducing volumes of waste and the risk of nuclear proliferation.
GNEP also enables the UK and other developed countries to share experience on a wide range of issues, such as infrastructure assessments, security and safety requirements, which will help developing countries identify whether nuclear power generation is suitable for them and how to proceed with its implementation. Signing the partnership's Statement of Principles in Washington DC, John Hutton (pictured) said, "The UK shares in the vision of improved non-proliferation and nuclear waste management and recognises the real benefits of initiatives such as GNEP to implement the right solutions and further develop international standards and best practice. "With the UK's advanced knowledge and capabilities, particularly in nuclear waste management, GNEP opens up the potential for UK organisations to share their expertise globally through tapping into international projects and building business partnerships,” he added. "With a new generation of nuclear energy now set to be part of the UK's future energy mix, the UK is in position to play a role in this global initiative." As members, the UK will be able to further contribute to the development of international policy on the use of nuclear power, non-proliferation and the disposal of nuclear waste to ensure the safe and secure development of nuclear energy worldwide. GNEP is a US initiative and promotes international collaboration to develop new spent fuel processing technology and advanced breeder reactors. Fuel production, reprocessing and ultimately waste storage services will then be provided to countries that have reactors but do not have those associated fuel cycle activities. This will enable countries to use nuclear energy for electricity generation without the need for them to possess sensitive technologies that could be used for weapons production. For more information, visit http://www.gnep.energy.gov/. Other GNEP members include: Australia, Bulgaria, Canada, China, France, The UK remains committed to the strict observance of relevant commitments and international obligations, including International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards and the requirements of United Nations Security Council resolution 1540. The Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform helps UK business succeed in an increasingly competitive world. It promotes business growth and a strong enterprise economy, leads the better regulation agenda and champions free and fair markets. It is the shareholder in a number of Government-owned assets and it works to secure, clean and competitively priced energy supplies. The Second Wave of Globalization! Containing the global economic slowdown and adapting development thinking to the second wave of globalization will be major topics at the upcoming session of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). Delegates to the 20-25 April meeting will also address the implications of emerging challenges such as high energy prices and climate change for development, UNCTAD Secretary-General Supachai Panitchpakdi (on left in photo with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon) told reporters in Geneva on March 18. A central focus of the conference, which will take place in Accra, Ghana, will be the special development challenges of Africa, he added. “The current, second wave of globalization,” Mr. Panitchpakdi explained, “has come about as developing countries become major players in the world economy.” Earlier this month, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed hope that the UNCTAD-XII conference could galvanize support for a more development-friendly global economic, trading and financial system, among other goals. Noting that 2008 is a pivotal year in the effort to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which aim to reduce extreme poverty and other global ills by 2015, Mr. Ban said that UNCTAD-XII must promote financial policies that help meet the MDGs in sub-Saharan Africa, in particular, as a matter of urgency. Established in 1964, UNCTAD promotes the integration of developing countries into the world economy. It also helps shape policy debates on development, with a focus on ensuring that domestic policies and international action are mutually supportive in bringing about sustainable growth. For more information, visit http://www.unctad.org. DR Congo gets $50 Million for Roads Projects The World Bank has announced that its Board of Executive Directors has approved a US$50 million grant for roads projects in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo). The funds, announced on March 18, will help reopen and maintain 1,800 km of roads, critical for the physical reunification, for achieving high, sustained and shared growth and for reconnecting the social fabric of the DR Congo as the country recovers from a decade of civil war.
The High Priority Roads Reopening and Maintenance (Pro-Routes) project builds on previous Bank’s efforts which helped construct almost 4,000 km of roads. The 1,800 km of earth roads envisaged in three provinces out of eleven under this project will serve the highest populated areas and connect to a network of about 7,000 km of high-priority roads already funded by various donors, including the International Development Association (IDA), the World Bank’s soft lending arm. The roads targeted are Kisangani-Buta-Bondo-Bunduki (620 km) crossing Orientale Province and connecting to Equateur Province; and Uvira-Kasomeno (1,180 km) crossing the Sud Kivu and Katanga provinces. The Pro-Routes project fits the road paving program to be funded by China either by connecting to it or by reopening sections that will be upgraded to paved standard.
“This project complements the massive investments in roads announced by the Chinese and is an illustration of the extent to which donors are willing to join forces to achieve quick and significant results on the ground, in ways that improve harmonization, cut transaction costs and ensure that donors are aligned with the priorities defined by the country,” said Marie-Francoise Marie-Nelly, the World Bank Country Director for DR Congo and Congo. Pro-Routes project is co-financed by a multi-donor Trust Fund managed by the World Bank. An administrative agreement for an amount equivalent to US$75 million in support of the project was signed on March 17, 2008 with the UK Department for International Development (DfID). DFID and IDA contributions may be increased in the future. Other donors – notably the European Commission, the African Development Bank and Belgian Cooperation - have expressed interest in joining the Trust Fund. “Thanks to an expandable design built into the project, any new funds would be used seamlessly to help increase the scope without altering the nature and the concept of the operation. For example, a four-fold increase would fund the completion of the reopening and maintenance of the country’s entire high-priority road network,” said Alain L. Labeau, the World Bank’s Task Team Leader for the project. DR Congo has identified a high-priority road network of 15,800 km of which 9,135 km of unpaved roads have been targeted for fast reopening under reduced technical standards supported by this project. The financial needs for rehabilitating the high-priority network, without upgrading to paved standard, are estimated at US$650 million.
Recognizing the vulnerability of earth roads to rainfalls and heavy trucks even if limited in number, an extensive maintenance program has been put together, initially funded by the project, and thereafter by a Road Maintenance Fund established under the project. The project also includes a program to develop the currently weak road construction industry and raise it to the challenge of rebuilding and maintaining tens of thousands of kilometers of roads scattered over DR Congo, a country the size of Western Europe. The project also provides targeted technical assistance to increase the capacity of DR Congo’s public works ministry and its Office des Routes to strategically manage and develop the road network in a budget constrained environment. Pro-Routes is built on a comprehensive social and environmental program to offset potential adverse impacts in line with the Action Plan approved by the Board on January 10th in response to the Inspection Panel report Adequate mitigation measures have also been taken to ensure that these roads – some of which cross and facilitate access to natural resources, traversing the second largest rainforest in the world – do not constitute a threat to the environment. Accordingly, it includes a comprehensive social and environmental program to offset potential adverse impacts in line with the Action Plan approved by the World Bank Board last January 10 in response to the Inspection Panel report. It will help strengthen local institutions in charge of forests and protected areas, partner with civil society organizations, and encourage the active participation of the local communities along the road corridors. For each dollar spent on road reopening and maintenance, 25 cents are spent on the social and environmental mitigation program. For more information on the World Bank in sub-Saharan Africa visit: www.worldbank.org/afr. For more information on the World Bank in DR Congo: www.worldbank.org/drc. Mexico to invest US$21 Billion in Water Projects According to news reports by the BBC, CNBC, International Herald Tribune (IHT) and other international media, Mexican President Felipe Calderon pledged Monday, March 24, to invest US$21 billion (€13.6 billion) in water projects to expand drinking water networks, drainage and water treatment plants in Mexico over the next five years.
"This will be the biggest investment in (water works) in the history of Mexico," Calderon (pictured) said at an event unveiling the program in Mexico's central Hidalgo state. “The program aims to ensure that at least 95 percent of the population has access to drinking water by 2012, expanding distribution to 10 million unserved inhabitants. It will give 90 percent of the country access to sewage drains — 6.5 million more people than have it today,” Calderon said. The plan also calls for irrigation systems to be upgraded on 1.2 million hectares (3 million acres) of arable land in a bid to conserve water, and for Mexico to treat 60 percent of its sewage by 2012, up from just 38 percent today. According to the BBC, the investment programme unveiled by Mr Calderon includes the following aims by 2012:
Among the projects to improve drainage and wastewater treatment will be the construction of a 62km-long (38 miles) drainage tunnel to serve Mexico City. The capital suffers frequent flooding, particularly in poorer districts that have clogged drains or no sewage system at all. Mexico's population of 106 million has quadrupled in the last 55 years, with people tending to concentrate in urban areas where provision of drinking water was more expensive. Mexico City, home to 20 million people, suffers both water shortages and flash floods.
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