Strengthening Employers’ Organizations capacities in export promotion and trade related area

The Programme for Employers’ Activities in Turin organized a one week seminar on “Strengthening Employers’ Organizations capacities in export promotion and trade related area”.

The workshop took place from 17th to 21st November in Turin Campus.  It was the first time that ACT/EMP Turin offered training in this area, but specific requests from the constituents and the high, unexploited potential export of many developing countries convinced Turin team to organize this pilot activity. In fact better export can have an important role to play in supporting economic development and raising employment. The activity aimed at helping Employers’ Organizations in fulfilling this role and in assessing how they can better assist their members in improving their export performance The workshop discussed in details the processes required to build the core competencies of the EO to design a portfolio of competitive services to promote sustainable export and the advocacy process to influence government and intergovernmental organization in framing effective commercial and trade policies to  create a business environment conducive to exports.

The activity, organized in collaboration with the International Trade Centre (UNCTAD/WTO),.gained a lot of attention by the International Organization of Employers that helped in selecting the best candidates. The final participants list included 24 participants coming from all over the world: Asia, Africa, Latin America and Arab States. This mixed audience, not only in terms of regional provenance, but also in “development stage” (some participants were from organization with a well-established export department, many from organizations that are in the process of setting one) permitted very interesting experience sharing sessions. One of the participants, Mr Al-Mahmood from Bahrain, will be the main responsible for the creation of an Export Centre in his country. He was enthusiastic about the course and the inputs and ideas received: hopefully his detailed and concrete action plan will become a concrete reality and his case will represent a success story for ACTEMP.

The faculty included two keynote speakers: Dr Ataç, Chief  of the Trade Support Institution Strengthening section of the International Trade Centre and former professor of international business in several universities (Ohio University, University of Massachusetts Boston and Harvard University) and Prof. Kostecky, consultant and program evaluator to international organizations, governments and multinational companies, Deputy Dean at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Neuchâtel and former Investment Manager and counselor at the GATT during the Uruguay Round of multilateral trade negotiations. Their experience and excellent pedagogical skills contributed to the overall success of the workshop.