UNIDO, others boost trade capacity of developing countries

United Nations Industrial Development Organisation, UNIDO and the International Organisation for Standardization, ISO Academy are ready to build the regional trade capacity of Least Developed Countries.
Towards this, 24 participants from Burundi, Chad, Ethiopia, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Senegal, Sudan, Swaziland, Togo and Uganda are attending a five-day training course in Maputo, the capital of Mozambique.
According to a statement by UNIDO, the programme was organised with support from the Enhanced Integrated Framework, EIF and the Network on Metrology, Accreditation and Standardization for Developing Countries, DCMAS.
Director of UNIDO’s Trade Capacity Building Branch, Bernardo Calzadilla-Sarmiento, said “Trade has long been recognized as a potential engine for growth and wealth creation”.
“Developing countries, particularly the Least Developed Countries, continue to face supply-side capacity and trade-related infrastructure constraints which can inhibit their ability to compete on international markets.
“Therefore, UNIDO and its partners designed this programme to help address these challenges by training experts on how to overcome quality infrastructure related barriers.
“The course includes a distance learning component that ensures all participants share a common knowledge concerning trade capacity building issues, and a residential part that offers a dynamic mixture of lectures and participatory teaching methods,” Calzadilla-Sarmiento stressed.
UNIDO said participants will also visit the National Institute of Standards and Quality (Mozambican Instituto Nacional de Normalização e Qualidade), which is supported by UNIDO’s “Private sector and quality promotion programme” implemented in Mozambique.
The statement revealed that representatives from UNIDO, ISO, EIF, international and local institutions as well as the private sector will run the course.