Mr. President,

China welcomes the endorsement with consensus by the Special Session of the IAEA General Conference of the 2023 draft budget update submitted by the Board of Governors and the relevant resolution. This is an outcome that has not been easily achieved thanks to the unremitting efforts of the Chair of the Board, the tremendous cooperation by the Member States and as well as the timely adjustment by the Secretariat I the course of the three long months discussion. China appreciates the spirit of cooperation demonstrated by all parties.

At the time when there are still severe challenges in global economic recovery and Member States are still faced with fiscal pressures caused by inflation and other factors, Member States have done their utmost to adjust and increase the Agency’s budget. This fully reflects the strong support rendered by them for the work of the Secretariat. As every amount of financial contribution made b the Member States is very valuable, we hope the Secretariat make good use every penny of the budget in a scientific, compliant, precise and efficient manner and further adopt cost saving and efficiency measures to ensure the orderly implementation of all the Major Programmes for the socioeconomic development in Member States and for a better pursuit of the goal of atoms for peace and development”.

Mr. President,

The major discussion on the budgetary adjustment has resulted in several important agreements among all parties, which are significant not only for the Agency’s budget, but also for the sustained healthy development of the Agency.

Firstly, rules must be respected, observed and safeguarded. Only following the rules can make sure the Agency moves forward in the right direction. Rules must apply to all matters, no matter if they concern the budget, the Iranian nuclear issue, the discharge of nuclear contaminated water in Fukushima Japan or AUKUS. The budget amendment and relevant resolution adopted by this Special Session emphasizes the need to completely and effectively implement all the relevant provisions in the Statute. China would stress once again that the Agency’s budget shall not be used for nuclear proliferation activities such as AUKUS. China expresses its satisfaction that the Secretariat committed to complete by the end of last year the rectifications to the fund shortages for 2020-2022 due to non-compliance, and hopes that the Secretariat act in strict compliance with the rules and ensure that the issue of shortfall due to non-compliance should not occur again after rectification.  According to the Agency’s Statute, the Member States are the decision-makers and the Secretariat is the executor. All the major and sensitive issues of the IAEA must be jointly decided upon by the Member States and the Secretariat shall not make any unauthorized decisions. China hopes that the Secretariat and Member States both follow the rules so that the Agency functions in compliance with rules and regulations.

Secondly, the budgetary structure of the Agency should continue to be optimized. The disproportionately high proportion of personnel expenses in the Agency’s regular budget is an outstanding problem. While China understands that this problem did not come into being over night and its resolution takes a process, a long journey of 1,000 miles starts with the first step. To face up to the problem and start to change is the correct way to solve the problem. The decision made by the Special Session to lower the personnel expense for 2023 by 1% is a crucial step I the right direction. We hope that the Secretariat develop plan and make constant efforts to gradually reduce the personnel expense to a more reasonable level so that the valuable resources of the Agency would be utilized more for the Agency’s technical activities and other mainstream business activities.

Thirdly, more TC fund which is crucial for the developing countries should continue to be made available. The amendment to the budget and the related resolution adopted just now have achieved the simultaneous increase of the TC fund and the regular budget and decide that the fund saved from the 1% reduction of personnel cost be used for “TC and other activities”. In the course of budgetary adjustment discussion, both the G77 and the African Group stressed the importance of maintaining and increasing the TC Fund. China calls on all Member States, particularly the developed countries to actively fulfil their own political commitment and responsibility for assessed contributions and pay their contributions to the TC Fund in time and in full so as to ensure the TC resources are sufficient, assured and predictable.

Mr. President,

The Agency’s Open-ended Working Group for Budgetary Issues for 2024-2025 will soon start its work and the Board of Governors has given the clear mandate to the Working Group to discuss and propose a feasible option to further improve the efficiency of the Agency’s work, including the optimization of the proportion of personnel expense. China hopes that the aforementioned important agreements would be further implemented in the subsequent discussions in the Working Group. China stands ready to participate in the consultation in the Group with a constructive attitude and work with all parties to move the Agency’s budget in a more reasonable and healthy direction. China hopes that the Agency’s budget for every year would continue to be improved and optimized in the right direction.

Mr. President,

As pointed out by President Xi Jinping in his new year’s address, where there is a will, there is a way. We are confident that as long as the Agency, as the most important intergovernmental international organization in the nuclear field, always acts in strict accordance with the rules and comprehensively implements the important agreements coming out of this discussion on the budgetary adjustment, it will be able to continuously improve itself and play more fully its irreplaceable important role. As the 2nd largest assessed contribution paying state and the 2nd largest contributor to the TC Fund, China always pays in time and in full its assessed contribution and its share of the TC Fund and has provided a large amount of extrabudgetary resources and contributions in-kind. China would continue its support for the Agency’s work and work together with all the other Member States and the Secretariat with the notion of community of shared future for mankind to promote the sustained and steady development of the nuclear undertakings and make new contributions for global peace and prosperity.

Thank you, Mr. President.