The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK, or North Korea) has for the first time sent a team of research specialists to Hong Kong to receive a one-month training in survey research at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.
Funded by the United Nations, this training program is the first organized training program of this kind for DPRK. The objective is to strengthen survey research capabilities of DPRK Statistics Office, which is planning for the first modern population and housing census to be held in 2008. This training program is a part of an overall effort to improve DPRK’s statistical system.
“We feel that it is a distinct honor for our Research Center and also for HKUST to have been chosen by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) to provide such training at this critical time for DPRK to enhance their development efforts,” said Prof John Ma, Director of HKUST’s Center for Spatial and Social Demographics.
Prof Ma noted that the United Nations, particularly the UNFPA and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), have been putting additional resources to assist DPRK in recent years, while the US Government also recently released an additional US$25 million to assist DPRK.
“We are hoping that the Center will continue to play an important role in the future development of research activities of DPRK. The planned training will be intensive and it will last for four weeks from 26 November through to 22 December both at the main campus of HKUST at Clear Water Bay and also at the Center’s research facilities at HKUST Fok Ying Tung Graduate School at Nansha,” Prof Ma added.
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