Spain renews annual support for UNCTAD technical cooperation with contribution of 320,000 Euros

Geneva, 11 November 2010 -- Spain and UNCTAD signed on 5 November an agreement by which the country will contribute 320,000 Euros to support UNCTAD technical-cooperation programmes in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Spain has provided such annual contributions since 2005.

Last week´s agreement was signed by Secretary of State for Foreign Commerce Bonet Baiget and UNCTAD Secretary-General Supachai Panitckpakdi.

The contribution will finance UNCTAD assistance in the following areas:

• Capacity building on trade facilitation negotiations: Regional workshops will be conducted to exchange experiences between the private and public sectors and to analyze how the private sector can contribute to the reduction of administrative barriers and other obstacles to international trade within the framework of regional and multilateral negotiations on trade facilitation.
• Training of negotiators in the area of international investment agreements: UNCTAD will carry out intensive training sessions for government officials involved in negotiating IIAs. The aim is to enhance their capacity to settle disputes over investments between the private and public sectors, to ensure coherence between national policies on international investment agreements, and to act as a forum to create possible regulations on investment.
• Joint UNCTAD-SELA training programme on electronic commerce and cyber legislation: this activity is a follow up to the activity strated by the TRAINFORTRADE programme in 2009. Two regional activities, a distance learning course on the legal aspects of electronic commerce and a regional workshop on cyber legislation will be carried out.
• Competition policies and consumer protection/COMPAL Programme: The Programme will be implemented in cooperation with SELA and will focus on strengthening competition laws and institutions which deal with issues of competition and consumer protection in the region.