International Trade Centre and UNIDO in joint efforts to boost growth in developing countries

VIENNA, 4 February 2015 – The International Trade Centre (ITC) and The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) will intensify joint activities in support of developing countries in Africa and Asia, with an initial focus on Ethiopia, Senegal and Sri Lanka, within the context of enhanced inter-agency collaboration.

The Deputy to the UNIDO Director-General, Taizo Nishikawa, and the Deputy Executive Director of ITC, Dorothy Tembo, declared their intentions during a meeting in Vienna on 3 February 2015 to step up collaboration to enhance the impact of the work of both organizations in beneficiary countries. This includes trade capacity building; value chain development; quality standards, investment and export promotion; industrial upgrading and enterprise competitiveness; as well as youth employment and entrepreneurship.

Both UNIDO and ITC intend to work towards greater complementarity and synergy in their efforts to improve economic opportunities and growth in developing countries in particular within the context of the Programmes for Country Partnerships developed for Ethiopia and Senegal.

This collaboration will also explore opportunities to support an ITC-led project in Sri Lanka on trade and capacity building and SME internationalization which is expected to be launched in 2016.

UNIDO and ITC will also share experiences and best practices on results measurement as a way to enhance the effectiveness of their technical assistance programmes.