China's Li Yong elected head of UNIDO

China's Vice Finance Minister, Li Yong, has been elected as the new Director-General of the UN's Industrial Development Organization, UNIDO. He's expected to be confirmed in the post on Friday.

Li will serve a term of four years. He ran against five other candidates, securing the required two-thirds of the vote from the 53-member board. Li has been a member of the Chinese Central Bank's Monetary Policy Committee for a decade.

He says UNIDO faces many challenges, including the provision of better services for member states, something he'll make one of his top priorities when he takes office.

"I am honoured to be elected. The Chinese government recommended me to this post. This shows the Chinese government's strong support for UNIDO. We need to mobilize more money to serve member states. And we need to provide more effective support to them. Different countries have different needs. The least developed countries need to start industrial development. As for middle-income countries, their level of industry should be further boosted," said, Li Yong, director general-elect of UNIDO.