 PRESS RELEASE
PRESS/322
3 December 2002
(02-6650)
TRADE AND INVESTMENT
Special workshop for African countries on Trade and Investment
The WTO’s technical assistance programme on Trade and Investment continues on 1-2 December
2002 with a special workshop for capital-based officials from 21 African countries.  This Workshopis being conducted in English.  The WTO Secretariat will organise a similar Workshop next year for
capital-based officials from African countries that use French as their working language in the
WTO.
The Workshop has been organised by the WTO Secretariat in cooperation with UNCTAD, and with
the support of the Government of Japan through the Japan International Cooperation Agency(JICA).
Technical workshops of this kind are being held regularly throughout the period up to the 5
th
Ministerial Session in Cancun to allow WTO Members and observer governments to prepare in an
informal setting for discussions in the Working Group on the Relationship between Trade and
Investment.  Their aim is to assist developing an d least-developed countries to better evaluate the
implications of closer multilateral cooperation on Investment for their development policies and
objectives.
The active participation of all developing countries is indispensable to the success of the Doha
work programme, but resource constraints make it difficult for many of them to participate as
often and as intensively as they would wish in the Geneva process.  For this special Workshop,therefore, with support from JICA, financing has been made available to invite a capital-based
official from each English-speaking African Member country to visit Geneva for a few days so as to
participate not only in the Workshop, but also in the subsequent meeting of the Working Groupthat will take place on 3-4 December.
That will be the Working Group’s final meeting of the year, at which it will review the work that has
been completed since Doha and discuss its end-of-year report to the WTO General Council.  By
participating in it, capital-based officials from African countries will have the opportunity of taking
stock of the progress that has been made in this area since Doha, and of participating with other
WTO Members in charting the course of further work on Trade and Investment in the run-up to the
Cancun Ministerial Conference.
END