The United Nations here Friday launched its cooperation with a Hong Kong charity group to mobilize the city's resources for poverty reduction and pollution fight.

"This new cooperation mechanism will provide a strategic approach in partnering with the private sector in Hong Kong where there is considerable potential for fund raising...to eradicate extreme poverty and promote sustainable development," said Khalid Malik, UN resident coordinator and UN Development Program (UNDP) resident representative in China.

Under a memorandum of understanding signed between UNDP and the Peace and Development Foundation (PDF), the Hong Kong-based PDF will collect fund from private sectors on behalf of UNDP, Malik told Xinhua in an interview on Friday afternoon.

The fund raised by PDF will be used on programs designed by PDF to alleviate poverty in China's mainland and fight pollution in Pan Pearl-River Delta and Hong Kong, according to Malik.

"The Hong Kong public and private sector are generous, but the Hong Kong economy doesn't contribute to the world development on an institution level," said Malik when explained the significance of the new partnership.

In comparison, he noted that some other cosmopolis or wealthy countries such as the Scandinavian nations have specific government sectors that contribute more than 1 percent of GDP to the world development.

Hong Kong is an international business and financial center with a GDP per capita of 24,000 US dollars. It's also a great Chinese city with a huge number of long-term foreign residents.

The unique character bestowed Hong Kong the strength and capability to engage with United Nations development projects, said Malik. "But the Hong Kong people more focus on Hong Kong itself......and most contribution of Hong Kong's public or private sector is crisis-driven."

He hoped the UNDP's cooperation with PDF would "open a window for Hong Kong people to look out (of their city)."

Describing it as "a big step forward," the UNDP official also expected the partnership to channel Hong Kong's public interests to more sustainable projects in addition to their contribution to disaster relief.

"Prevention is better than fixing it," he added.

This two-year framework of cooperation therefore will focus on three areas: leadership training and capacity building in Hong Kong and China's mainland; poverty alleviation in the Pan Pearl River Delta and the rest part of China; fighting pollution in Pan Pearl-River Delta and Hong Kong.

Though no specific goal has been set, UNDP is optimistic that the cooperation will bear fruits.

Hong Kong Committe for UNICEF alone raises fund of some US$6 to 8 million a year, according to Malik.

The partnership also received warm welcome in Hong Kong with the launch ceremony attended by many senior officials, including Tung Chee Hwa, Vice Chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference; Yang Wenchang, Commissioner of China's Foreign Affairs Ministry in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR); and Rafael Hui, HKSAR's Chief Secretary of Administration.

"The aim (of the cooperation) is to let the more advanced part of China to help the less developed parts on specific and practical issues," said Malik.

(Xinhua News Agency December 3, 2005)