Syria signs environmental documents with UNDP

Documents were signed and exchanged on Wednesday between the Syrian Ministry of State for Environment Affairs and the United Nations Development Program with the objective of carrying out three projects in the area of eliminating gases damaging the Ozone layer in the industrial sector.

The documents were signed by the Syrian minister for the environmental affairs, Abdul Hamid al-Munajid, and the UNDP resident representative in Damascus, Tawfiq Bin Amara.

The Syrian minister stressed the importance of projects targeting the elimination of all materials damaging to the ozone layer. The minister noted that such projects will place Syria among countries which would have disposed of these damaging materials by the year 2002.

The minister added that during this year some 100 tonnes of the ozone layer damaging material will be eliminated. The UNDP representative, for his part, thanked the Syrian government for signing this project document and ensuring Syria's commitment to implementing international treaties pertaining to environmental protection.

He said these projects, which fall in the context of the Montreal protocol, would have a positive impact on protecting the environment and eliminating poisonous gases and strengthen social and economic development projects

The three projects under implementation will continue for four years.