The Twenty-second Meeting of the Executive Committee formed a contact group, with the participation of the representatives of Australia, China, Costa Rica, India, Peru, Switzerland, United Kingdom and United States of America.
Based on an information paper submitted by Sweden and Malaysia and the recommendations submitted by the contact group, the Twenty-second Meeting of the Executive Committee decided:
(a) that the contact group should meet at the next Executive Committee meeting to continue the discussion. In order to have a fruitful discussion, members of the contact group should come with the following information:
(i) national experience in managing the ODS phase-out by SMEs;
(ii) problems and challenges in achieving phase-out by SMEs in their country;
(iii) proposals on national strategies and plans to move ahead on SMEs phase-out;
(b) to set up a pilot programme on SMEs at the next meeting. For that purpose, the Group will present proposals on:
(i) the sector/sub-sectors to be focused on;
(ii) the criteria to be applied;
(iii) that the Sweden/Malaysia information paper provided to the contact group be included as part of the documentation for the pilot programme.
(UNEP/OzL.Pro/ExCom/22/79/Rev.1, Decision 22/67 (paras. 89 and 90).
The Twenty-third Meeting of the Executive Committee decided:
(a) to note the report of the Contact Group on SMEs presented by its Chair (Costa Rica);
(b) to request the Secretariat to provide the following information to the members of the Group by the end of 1997:
a break-down by sector, including information on cost, cost-effectiveness and ODS phase-out, from the inventory of approved projects of the SMEs already funded, using the definitions of SMEs from the UNDP/UNEP paper (UNEP/OzL.Pro/ExCom/19/54).
national studies and surveys on SMEs available to the Secretariat (noting that Mexico promises to send its national survey on SMEs once the survey is completed in January 1998, and China promises to send its report on SMEs, to the Secretariat for circulation to members of the Group).
completion reports and elaborated progress reports on ongoing projects from Implementing Agencies on approved SME projects. Therefore the Implementing Agencies are requested to submit these data to the Secretariat no later than 4 December 1997.
(c) to encourage members of the Contact Group that had not already done so to submit to the Secretariat their national perspective on the problems and approaches on ODS phase-out by SMEs; and
(d) to note that the draft proposal of the Contact Group would be presented to the first meeting of the Executive Committee in 1998.
(UNEP/OzL.Pro/ExCom/23/68, Decision 23/54, para. 94).
At its Twenty-fourth Meeting, the Chairman of the Executive Committee announced that Peru would be the new chairperson of the Contact Group.
The Twenty-fourth Meeting of the Executive Committee decided that Implementing Agencies, countries and members of the Contact Group should provide their reports or views by 1 May 1998 to enable the Contact Group to coordinate and present a further report to the next meeting of the Committee.
(UNEP/OzL.Pro/ExCom/24/47, Decision 24/63 (paras. 106 and 107).