Canada donates $70,000 for Bali meeting

JAKARTA: The Canadian Embassy here donated US$70,000 for the 4th Preparatory Committee Meeting for the World Summit on Sustainable Development, to be held in Bali from May 27 to June 7.

Canadian Ambassador Ferry de Kerckhove said here on Tuesday that it was traditional for his country to support multilateralism and the involvement of civil society in international discussions on sustainable development.

"Canada was one of the countries that promoted the inclusion of non-governmental organizations, youth, private sector and indigenous people in the United Nations Conference on Development and the Environment in Rio de Janeiro in 1992," he said.

The $70,000 assistance, provided by the Canadian International Development Agency, will be used to finance the 4th Prep-Com Meeting in Nusa Dua, Bali.

The UN assigned Indonesia to host the preparatory committee meeting before the World Summit on Sustainable Development, which will be held in Johannesburg, South Africa, from Aug. 26 to Sept. 4.

The Indonesian government and the United Nations Development Program, which sponsors the event, have so far received commitments for financial assistance totaling to $2,737,500 from a number of donors, including Australia, Canada, the European Union, Finland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Britain. -- Antara