On 27 March, the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Commerce of Spain, Mr. Joan Clos i Matheu, and the Secretary-General of UNCTAD, Dr. Supachai Panitchpakdi, signed a Specific Agreement on technical cooperation that provides for the areas of UNCTAD´s activities to be financed in 2007 by an extrabudgetary contribution of 320.000 euros.
This is the third annual contribution to be made by the Secretariat of State of Tourism and Commerce towards the UNCTAD technical cooperation since 2005. In addition to this contribution, the wider Framework Agreement of Cooperation that was signed in September 2006 between Spain and UNCTAD, will enter into force shortly and will encompass other Spanish financing sources.
During 2007, the Spanish contribution will finance operations for the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean in the areas of:
- negotiations of trade in services at the multilateral, regional and bilateral levels;
- capacity development for trade facilitation and related services;
- training of negotiators of international investment agreements;
- training activities of TrainForTrade in the area of electronic commerce as provided by the joint work programme UNCTAD-ALADI.
