2016 Internship Report -- Tse Hiu Lam

Name: Tse Hiu Lam

School: The University of Hong Kong

Year: 4

Internship: United Nations Resident Coordinator’s Office

Duration: June 20 - August 26

During summer 2016, I had the pleasure working for UNDP China as an intern. There are many working units within UNDP, and I was m

ainly responsible for the Global and Regional Cooperation Team. During my short stay, which was about two months,

I had involved in and witnessed many great projects and events. I also met many new people who shared similar vision and passion as I do, but unique in their own way, and until now, I still very much treasure and deeply miss the time we spent together.

My team was mainly responsible for facilitating and coordinating missions, visits, and cooperation between UNDP and the Chinese Government counterparts, namely

Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) and

National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC). In addition, our team has been working on cooperating with the Chinese Government on the Belt and Road

Initiative (BRI) since the beginning of 2014, and through almost three years worth of hard work and countless proposal drafting and revision, we are finally about to sign a memorandum of understanding with the Chinese Government. The signing of the memorandum is such a milestone for both UNDP and the Chinese Government, as the cooperation is truly mutual beneficial. In 2015, the UN Millennium Development

(MDGs) Goals had been successfully replaced by the Sustainable Development Goals

(SDGs). Seventeen new development goals were established and they all aimed toward sustainable human development and shared prosperity. Conveniently, these principles are also shared by the BRI, which it promotes win-win cooperation, shared economic prosperity and inclusiveness, also to create global public goods to benefit all. In cooperating with UNDP on the BRI, China can rely on UNDP’s global network and development expertise in different developing countries along the Belt and Road region, to promote the initiative and familiarize with the regional/local political, economic and cultural characteristics, therefore, to better implement projects and set the development agenda. At the same time, UNDP can utilize China’s devoted resource to the BRI, to help implement local projects that are both sustainable and profitable.

Regarding my daily duties, I was mainly responsible for translating documents into both Chinese and English, finalizing monthly newsletter that has over 350 high-level subscribers, proposal drafting, coordinating with other teams and event logistics. I was also the simultaneous interpreter for the launch ceremony of NetEase’s Massive

Open Online Course (MOOC), which was a collaboration with UNDP China, to promote the SDGs. It was an invaluable experience for me and very useful to my future. I have also got great sense of achievement from helping to edit the SDGs

Factsheet, which will be circulated among all the agencies for reference.

All in all, the internship has been very inspiring, educational and fun. It was such a treasure to me that my co-workers taught me so much through working with me together and they all eventually became my friends for life. It also allowed me to get to know United Nations better and I definitely would like to work for UN again as a full-time stuff in the future because I agree with the values it is promoting and the work it is doing to make the world a better place.

This experience was unexpectedly amazing and it is going to be a great memory to me.