President Leuthard to travel to Austria and Portugal next week
Bern, 23.11.2017 - On Monday, 27 November, President Doris Leuthard will attend the 17th General Conference of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) in Vienna and deliver a speech on the implementation of the UN’s Agenda 2030. Ms Leuthard will also meet with Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen and Chancellor Christian Kern. The presidential visit to Portugal originally planned for mid-October will take place on Tuesday and Wednesday, 28 and 29 November.
Delegates at the 17th UNIDO General Conference will discuss ways of achieving inclusive sustainable industrial development (ISID) under the heading of ‘Partnering for impact – achieving the Sustainable Development Goals’. Switzerland is among UNIDO’s leading donors and is a member of the Industrial Development Board, which reviews implementation of the work programme and budgets.
In Vienna an agreement will be signed by Switzerland and UNIDO on the launch of a new programme to strengthen quality infrastructure in partner countries involved in Swiss development cooperation. The main aim of the programme is to improve the system of public and private sector conformity assessment bodies and help SMEs to meet the necessary international quality standards to enable them to access global markets.
President Leuthard will also use the opportunity to hold bilateral talks on the fringes of the conference with heads of state and government and representatives from international organisations. Discussions at the meetings with President Van der Bellen and Chancellor Kern will cover relations between the two countries and European policy issues.
Presidential visit to Portugal
The presidential visit to Portugal, originally planned for mid-October but postponed due to the devastating forest fires and the subsequent period of national mourning, has been rescheduled for next Tuesday and Wednesday. The focus of the official talks with President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, Prime Minister António Costa and other members of government will be on bilateral cooperation, education and research, economic and international issues and European policy.
In addition to a reception with military honours and official talks, the programme also includes a visit to the Portuguese parliament and the Champalimaud Foundation’s Centre for the Unknown.
Switzerland and Portugal have traditionally enjoyed good political relations, as demonstrated by President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa’s state visit to Switzerland last October. Strong social ties have existed between the two countries for many decades. Today, some 270,000 Portuguese nationals live in Switzerland making the Portuguese community the third largest foreign community in the country. There are currently around 3,700 Swiss nationals living in Portugal.
Address for enquiries
Communication DETEC, +41 58 462 55 11
Publisher
General Secretariat of the Federal Department of Environment, Transport, Energy and Communications; General Secretariat DETEC
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