Mr. Reiter brings a wealth of international experience in the trade and development field dealing with multilateral organizations.
 Mr Joakim Reiter being received by Dr Mukhisa Kituyi, Secretary-General of UNCTAD  His passion for development and focus on inter-agency collaboration represent a premier value at this critical time of the multilateral process Dr. Kituyi Secretary-General of UNCTAD |
Former Deputy Director General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Sweden, Mr. Joakim Reiter, joined the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development as Deputy Secretary-General on 1 April 2015.
"I am deeply honored and excited to join UNCTAD", he said as he was received by Dr. Mukhisa Kituyi.
Referring to the UN negotiations on the post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals and the role that UNCTAD can play in this important context, he added: "I am convinced that the forthcoming sustainable development goals make it even more critical that our wide range of evidence-based and tangible policy activities assist developing countries in integrating into the global economy, and maximize the benefits thereof, to ensure prosperity for all."
Mr. Reiter will assist the Secretary-General in strengthening synergies among UNCTAD's three pillars of action: research and analysis, intergovernmental consensus-building and technical cooperation activities.
In that sense, Mr. Reiter's previous experience will be key: "Mr. Reiter brings to this position a wealth of international experience in the trade and development field dealing with multilateral organizations, senior political experience as a representative of his country, hands on experience on the technical cooperation front from his work on the donor side with Sweden and highly relevant negotiations skills within the intergovernmental machinery", explained Dr. Mukhisa Kituyi.
From 2011 to 2014, he held the position of Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Sweden to the World Trade Organization, Switzerland, where he also served as chair for the WTO bodies on services, goods and trade policy reviews respectively. From 2008 to 2011, Mr. Reiter was Minister Counsellor and Head of Trade Section at the Representation of Sweden to the European Union, Belgium. From 2004 to 2008, he served at the European Union Directorate General for Trade in European Commission, where he was involved in a number of multilateral, regional and bilateral negotiations with countries at different levels of development.
Before that, he held various positions within the Swedish National Board of Trade, Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Industry, including as Special Advisor to the Minister for Industry and Trade, responsible for drafting the government's strategy for equitable globalization and its communication on global financial stability as well as taking part in the formulation of its policy coherence for development.
Born in Sweden in 1974, he holds a Master of Science from the London School of Economics and a MA from University of Lund, Sweden.
Mr. Reiter will be replacing Mr. Petko Draganov of Bulgaria, who served in this role since 2009.
