The 57th edition of the ITC annual stakeholder meeting took place at the World Trade Organization

The 57th edition of the ITC annual stakeholder meeting took place at the World Trade Organization

Geneva, 20 July 2023 – The 57th annual meeting of the Joint Advisory Group members has been held to review the work of the International Trade Centre (ITC) in 2022 and make recommendations for subsequent years.

Opening the session, WTO Director-General Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala mentioned that trade must work for people, and this is where ITC plays an important role in supporting small businesses to trade in global markets. According to Director-General Ngozi, ITC interventions led to more than 27,000 small businesses improving their competitiveness, of which 10,000 were led by women.

In her remarks, Rebeca Grynspan, Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), shared examples of ITC and UNCTAD collaboration in areas such as
e-commerce and market intelligence, for example, through the Global Trade Helpdesk, an initiative of ITC, UNCTAD and the WTO.

Zhanar Aitzhan, Permanent Representative of the Republic of Kazakhstan to the WTO and other international economic organizations, shared the results of cooperation between the ITC and Kazakhstan within the framework of the Ready4Trade Central Asia project funded by the European Union. Through the implementation of the project, ITC has played an important role in facilitating intra-regional and international trade, promoting Kazakhstan's status as a vital transit hub between East and West, and bolstering regional trade cooperation in Central Asia.

In particular, the Permanent Representative noted that ITC jointly with QazTrade successfully launched the Kazakhstan Trade Portal, which provides an easy access to information on cross-border trade procedures for over 40 product groups, and since its launch, it has been visited by over 4,000 users.

ITC is also supporting Kazakhstan in implementing initiatives fostering digitalization and paperless trade. Currently, work is underway to modernize the existing electronic queue management system and digitalize the processes of certificates of origin.

Permanent Representative thanked ITC and UNCTAD for the technical expertise on development of Kazakhstan’s legislation on electronic commerce in accordance with the ongoing WTO negotiations on the global regulation of electronic commerce.

In conclusion, Permanent Representative Zh. Aitzhan assured of continued cooperation between Kazakhstan and ITC in order to promote more efficient and inclusive trade in the region and beyond, and achieve concrete results in the coming years.