UNCTAD Trade and Development Board debates best responses to
economic turbulence
 The 60th session of UNCTAD's Trade and Development Board - the body
that oversees the organisation's operations from year to year - focusses
on how UNCTAD can help developing countries cope with altered and
uncertain circumstances in the wake of the financial and economic
crisis. The two-week series of meetings opened on Monday with the first
major address by the organisation's new Secretary-General, Mukhisa
Kituyi.
The opening plenary was addressed by Minister of Culture, Arts and
Heritage of Qatar, Hamad bin Abdulaziz Al-Kawari and President of the
UNCTAD XIII quadrennial conference in 2012.
The afternoon session on Monday featured a high-level debate on how
UNCTAD should encourage new patterns of growth for trade and
development.
The panellists at the debate were Kituyi, Secretary-General of the
International Telecommunication Union, Hamadoun Touré, Director-General
of the World Intellectual Property Organisation, Francis Gurry and
Minister of Trade and Handicrafts of Tunisia, Abdelwahad Matar.
A highlight of the second week of the Trade and Development Board
will be 'Trade Day', which will consider the evolution of the
international trading system and its trends from a development
perspective, and will feature Kituyi, the new Director-General of the
World Trade Organisation, Roberto Azevędo and new International Trade
Centre, Executive Director, Arancha González.
Additional topics to be debated at the Trade and Development Board
session, which concludes on Friday, include economic interdependence,
the role played by domestic and regional demand in achieving sustainable
economic growth, global value chains and their role in development,
economic development in Africa, efforts to help the Least Developed
Countries and UNCTAD's assistance to the Palestinian people. |
