 PRESS RELEASE
PRESS/334
28 February 2003
(03-1209)
TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE
WTO and International Institut e for Trade and Development
launch technical assistance collaboration
Dr. Supachai Panitchpakdi, WTO Director-Gener al, and Ambassador Manaspas Xuto, Executive
Director of the International Institute for Trade and Development, signed today a Memorandum of
Understanding launching a joint technical assistance programme to help developing and least-developed countries increase their participation in the multilateral trade negotiations.
The technical assistance programme will consist of training courses given by WTO and ITD
Secretariats officials. The courses will start this year and will be jointly funded by WTO and ITD.
“I am delighted to start this new collaboration with the International Institute for Trade and
Development,” Dr. Supachai said. “The round of negotiations we launched at the Doha Ministerial
Conference covers many areas, all highly complex. I am glad we can now count on the partnership
of the ITD to increase knowledge of WTO issues  in developing and least developed countries’.”
“This agreement will institutionalize the cooperation relationship between WTO and ITD,” said
Amb. Xuto. “Through this new instrument, ITD intends to organize a workshop on trade andservices jointly with WTO and the United Nations Secretariat for the Asian and Pacific region in
summer 2003.”
The International Institute for Trade and Development is the product of a cooperation agreement
between the Royal Thai Government and the United Nations Conference on Trade and
Development (UNCTAD). It was officially inaugurated on 1 May 2002 and its headquarters arelocated on the campus of Chulalongkorn University, Thailand.
END