New World Trade University Launched at U.N. Conference

The "World Trade University" - - an institute of higher learning designed to foster a broader understanding of the multilateral trading system among young people -- was launched Thursday in Brussels at the Third United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries, U.N. officials said in the UN Friday.

The university, formally initiated during a meeting of young entrepreneurs held as part of the Brussels conference, will be based in Toronto, Canada, with campuses in Asia and Africa.

It is designed to be affordable, accessible and adapted to the present-day training needs of entrepreneurs and policy-makers from the least developed countries (LDCs), other developing nations and states in transition.

The establishment of the university was hailed by many participants, including Mike Moore, the director-general of the World Trade Organization (WTO), who emphasized the important role it would play in capacity-building throughout the world. Stressing that new technology was the "great liberating force of the century, " he voiced support for the university's intention to use the Internet for its courses.

Zephirin Diabra, associate administrator of the U.N. Development Program (UNDP), expressed his hope that the university would be a powerful tool in helping entrepreneurs overcome difficulties in accessing national and international markets.

International trade was also the focus of a separate interactive session held Thursday as part of the conference on the LDCs, which currently group 49 countries in the world, most of them in Africa.

Moore said that the next round of trade negotiations, to be launched in Doha, Qatar, would be wider in scope than previous rounds. He challenged participants to take bold action during the coming talks, saying, "If we are happy with the status quo and comfortable with the injustices brought by compromises, then let us continue to nibble at the edges of change. But if we want real change, then let us start a balanced, wider set of negotiations."






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