How is the membership fee of UNESCO calculated in the United States at 22%, Japan at more than 9% and China at 7.9%?

how does the United nations share its dues? At its last meeting this year, held on Tuesday (December 23rd), the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Secretariat's recurrent budget of $3.16 billion for the biennium 24-25, and also adopted a new proportion of United Nations expenses. China's proportion will increase to 2% of the total budget, which will make China's ranking in the United Nations contribution jump from 13th to 9th. Yao Keping is an official of the United Nations Statistics Division, who is responsible for the calculation of assessed contributions. In an exclusive interview with Liu Kefan, a Chinese-language broadcast of the United Nations, Yao Keping first introduced the ranking order of the top players in the new allocation ratio: Yao Keping: The membership fee of the United Nations is adjusted every three years. According to the current calculation method, China's ranking in paying membership dues in the United Nations has jumped from 13th in the last membership fee adjustment to 9th now. The countries ahead of China are the United States, Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Canada, Italy and Spain, which are established capitalist countries. Liu Kefan: A big industrial country means seven big industrial countries plus Spain, and then it's China's turn. Then you just mentioned that the calculation of membership dues is adjusted every three years. What factors will you consider when calculating membership dues? Yao Keping: According to its resolution 5B of the 55th General Assembly, the main factors it considers when calculating membership dues are as follows. One is the total national income of member countries. The second is to determine the unified base period. The concept of unified base period means that we should add up the national income of the last six years and the national income of the last three years and make a simple average. The third element is to determine an appropriate conversion factor, because the national income of each country is expressed in its own currency, so that to achieve an international comparability, it is necessary to convert the national income of all countries into a unified, for example, converted into dollars. The fourth element is to adjust the debts of some countries with heavy debts, especially developing countries, according to the debt situation of member countries. The fifth factor is the so-called low-income relief. This low-income relief means that if the per capita national income of a member country is lower than the average national income of the world, it can be adjusted according to the relief coefficient of 8%. Liu Kefan: Like tax allowance? Yao Keping: Yes, it is equivalent to the concept of progressive tax. At the same time, for those countries whose per capita income is much higher than the world average income, it should absorb the income of those countries that have been reduced. (Liu Kefan: Just like the principle of paying taxes, pay more if you have money, and pay less if you have no money. ) In this respect, populous countries like China and India actually get preferential treatment from this policy. The next policy is the minimum payment system, which means that no matter how poor your country is, the proportion of your membership fee must reach .1%. Liu Kefan: This is the minimum membership fee. How much is this converted into cash? Yao Keping: According to the total budget scale of the previous two years, .1 percentage point is equivalent to about thirteen thousand dollars. Liu Kefan: That is to say, no matter how poor or small a country is, it must pay at least more than 1, US dollars. Yao Keping: Yes, it is. The sixth factor to be considered is that for some least developed countries, their share of membership dues cannot exceed .1%. The concept of the so-called least developed countries is re-examined by the United Nations Economic and Social Council every three years according to a series of indicators of its economic and social development. Liu Kefan: It seems that there are about 4 in the world. Yao Keping: That's right. However, Myanmar and Pakistan are the two countries that may be affected in the calculation of membership fees. Because if these two countries do not adjust the ceiling of the least developed countries, the ratio of their contributions will far exceed .1%. Liu Kefan: That is to say, although the per capita income of these two countries is relatively low, they are relatively large, so the total economic output is relatively large. So it's equivalent to saying that the two countries can't pay more than one year because they are poor. Yao Keping: .1% is actually equivalent to $13,. The last adjustment is that there is a ceiling on membership fees. According to resolution 5B of the 55th General Assembly, the limit is 22%, which means that no matter how rich your country is or how high your per capita income is, the proportion of your membership dues cannot exceed 22%. For example, in the United States, its share in the world economy is about 38%, but at present, due to the implementation of the maximum limit of 22%, the remaining 16% of these dues will be shared among all other countries, and of course, the principle that the rich pay more to the poor and pay less will be taken into account when sharing. Liu Kefan: There are about eight different factors you mentioned just now, so you have considered them very carefully and rigorously in your calculation. That's interesting. One is the economic aggregate. For example, just now, China is the sixth in the world, but the payment fee is the ninth. Then, as a developing country and the most populous country, how much influence does China's population have on the calculation of China's membership fee? Yao Keping: When we calculate the dues that China should pay to the United Nations, we consider the unification of the national income of Taiwan Province Province, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and Macao Special Administrative Region of China into the unification of China as a sovereign country. According to this calculation method, China's ranking in the world economy may rise by one or two places. However, considering that China is a populous country, the United Nations has specially joined this low per capita income reduction policy for some developing countries with large population and heavy economic burden when calculating membership dues. That is to say, if China's population factor is not considered, only China's economic aggregate is considered, then China's membership fee may exceed 4%; After a series of adjustments, the proportion of membership dues paid by China is slightly over 2%. Liu Kefan: In terms of specific figures, China is now 2%. What is the membership fee to be paid next year? If we assume that we only consider economic strength without considering population factors, how much should we pay? Yao Keping: Of course, the adjustment of this demographic factor, as I mentioned earlier, is equivalent to a progressive system of paying taxes. For example, China's per capita national income is now US$ 1,, and the average income in the world is US$ 5,. So what is the difference between us and US$ 5,? It's four thousand dollars. Four thousand times the discount factor of .8, then this income and membership fee is not considered when evaluating. From this point of view, China actually pays a lot less membership fees because of this system. Liu Kefan: If the United Nations calculates membership dues so rigorously, there are upper and lower limits, etc., but if there is an economic crisis and war in a country, what can I do? Yao Keping: It should be said that the United Nations' methods for calculating membership dues, including the sources of statistical data and the statistical data itself, are relatively fair and transparent and can withstand the scrutiny of member States. However, in some countries, due to domestic wars or large-scale natural disasters, the domestic economic situation has suddenly changed, which is beyond the control of their own governments. In this case, in accordance with relevant UN resolutions, member States can make a request to the Fifth Committee of the UN General Assembly, that is, the Committee responsible for finance, personnel and administration, and ask for deferred payment and debt relief in accordance with Article 19 of the UN Charter. Of course, if it wants to make this request, it must submit as detailed information as possible to the United Nations Committee on Contributions two weeks before the meeting, such as its economic development, foreign debt, government revenue and so on, so that the Committee on Contributions can have sufficient time to review the country's economic situation during the meeting. Liu Kefan: Economic data, statistics and exchange rates are good. How can the United Nations ensure that the figures provided by each country are reliable and comparable? Yao Keping: The United Nations is sharing its dues, and its data source comes from official data as much as possible. For example, when we calculate membership dues, we mainly involve such economic indicators. The first is the national income index, the second is the exchange rate index, the third is the population, and the fourth is the foreign debt situation. The sources of these data are as follows, so I can give you a brief introduction. First, its national income. National income comes from the United Nations Statistics Division. The United Nations Statistics Division issues a questionnaire on national income accounts to all countries in the world every year, and then member countries fill it out. Therefore, the United Nations Statistics Division obtains the national income account data of major countries in the world through this means. Of course, for many developing countries, especially some African countries with imperfect statistical systems, if these countries have no statistical data in recent years, then we must estimate the data of these countries through other channels. For example, some central banks or their statistical authorities may have official publications, or the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund may visit these countries and bring back some statistical reports. As you all know, the United Nations has regional committees in several major regions, such as Africa, Latin America, and Asia-Pacific in Thailand. We can also obtain information and data through our regional committees. If it is really difficult to obtain data, we will also obtain some data through some private and commercial organizations, and even through the speeches made by some government officials. Of course, it's only in difficult times that we have to take these measures. This is the national income account data. There is also exchange rate conversion, because we have to convert the national income data of all countries into a unified one, for example, into US dollars, and we will encounter many difficulties in the conversion. Of course, for market economy countries, because their exchange rates are unified and determined by market forces, there will be no problems. But for many countries, because there is no foreign exchange market in China, or the foreign exchange market is not perfect, or the exchange rate is controlled by the government, then we will encounter many difficulties in the conversion. Of course, our main source of exchange rate comes from the international financial statistics of the International Monetary Fund. There are still many countries whose official exchange rates are very distorted. In this case, we need to adopt other methods to estimate. For example, in Iraq, the so-called official exchange rate is one dollar equivalent to .355 dinars, but the black market exchange rate is one dollar equivalent to three to five thousand dinars. (Liu Kefan: equivalent to millions of times? ) is equivalent to tens of thousands of times. In this case, we will adjust the exchange rates of these member countries through other methods, such as the price-adjusted exchange rates designed by the United Nations itself. Liu Kefan: So you are also very strict about this data, and make it as objective, transparent and comparable as possible through various channels. Because membership dues and money are involved, this is related to the vital interests of the country, and everyone wants to pay less, which is also human nature. You just mentioned that the membership fee will be adjusted every three years, which is actually a political process, which means that every three years, the United Nations Member States may have a quarrel, and in the end, who should pay how much, right? Yao Keping: It should be like this. Of course, as the actual operation of the Committee on Contributions, this institution is purely a technical organization. Of course, this Committee on Contributions belongs to the Fifth Committee. Therefore, after the final calculation results and the main factors to be considered in the calculation are reported to the Fifth Committee, the Fifth Committee will hold a large-scale and long-term debate. (Liu Kefan: Because the Fifth Committee is the representative and ambassador of all countries. ) Well, there will be some political factors involved in this process. There are several statistical elements I mentioned before that have not been finished. In addition to national income account data and exchange rate data, there are two more important materials, one is foreign debt data, and the other is population data. The external debt data mainly comes from the World Bank, because the World Bank has a debtor reporting system, and developing countries with debts must report their debt stock and their annual repayment and interest payments to the World Bank. Also, regarding the population data, in order to ensure the fairness of the data, our population data mainly comes from the United Nations Population Division. From these four aspects, we can see that we try our best to ensure that the data itself is fair and transparent. Liu Kefan: Of course, the United Nations is an international public service organization. As the membership fee of a member country increases, the sharing of posts in the United Nations by citizens of this country will also increase. Yao Keping: That's true. The increase or decrease of the membership fee of the United Nations will affect the proportional distribution of public servants in the United Nations among member countries. When a country's membership fee increases, it is certain that the proportion of personnel allocated to this country will increase accordingly. After China increased its membership fee in 24, I think the United Nations Personnel Department may conduct a new round of recruitment in China in 25. For example, as far as I am concerned, I applied for the exam in 21. Why do I have the opportunity to apply for the exam? China's membership fee increased from 1998 to 2, so I had the opportunity to take the United Nations competitive examination for international civil servants. Besides the recruitment of personnel, there are other advantages, such as the procurement of the United Nations. Everyone knows that the procurement of the United Nations is very large every year. If the membership fee of this country increases, then the United Nations will take into account the procurement share of this country when making procurement accordingly. china31225.htm