The North-West University (NWU), one of the largest public academic institutions in South Africa, is the latest addition to the UNCTAD Virtual Institute's affiliate network. Along with core member, the University of Pretoria, and affiliate member, Stellenbosch University, the NWU is the third institution to represent South Africa in the Virtual Institute.
NWU is recognized as one of the most innovative universities in South Africa aiming to become a balanced teaching/learning and research university encouraging multiculturalism and multilingualism.
The Virtual Institute's main counterpart will be the NWU's School of Economics (Potchefstroom Campus), in particular its newly created research team TRADE (Trade and Development) focusing on international trade, competitiveness and development issues.
TRADE's research covers a wide range of "trade and development" issues, with a focus on export potential and opportunities, internalization of firms, export specialization and diversification and firm-level analysis. Among the most recent publications is the book titled "Export promotion: A decision support model approach."
 Prof. Wilma Viviers |
The university would be happy to share its experience with research on the identification of export opportunities, and to cooperate in research on export promotion, barriers to internationalization, agglomeration and spillover effects of exports, among other topics.
The NWU hopes that their participation in the Vi will provide them with access to specialized training on trade analysis methods, opportunities for studies and research visits abroad, as well as to joint research projects and publications.
For more information, visit the NWU's profile on the Vi website.
This fall, the Virtual Institute will be hosting study tours/visits for China, Colombia and Germany. The Virtual Institute will also begin its videoconference presentations of the UNCTAD flagship reports.
