Spanish Minister of External Relations and Cooperation Miguel Angel Moratinos and UNCTAD Secretary-General Supachai Panitchpakdi signed this morning a new Framework Cooperation Agreement enlarging the scope of Spain´s technical cooperation with UNCTAD. The pact will involve various Spanish institutions in additional work with UNCTAD, including the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation.
UNCTAD hopes that the new agreement will lead in short order to an increase in technical cooperation activities in developing countries in Latin America. Spain is the only donor to UNCTAD operations that has a special political relationship with the Latin American region and a deep understanding of development issues there.
Following the signing of the agreement, Mr. Moratinos addressed UNCTAD´s Trade and Development Board, saying Spain was convinced that effective multilateralism could help to rectify some of the imbalances caused by globalization -- that while economic interdependence was a characteristic feature of the times that offered many advantages, there should be a commitment by the international community to ensure that the benefits were distributed fairly.
He called for a resumption and successful conclusion to the Doha round of world trade negotiations, and for greater efforts to expand stable employment in developing nations, as that was a viable, long-term route out of poverty. And he urged all Governments to make a renewed commitment to meeting the Millennium Development Goals.
UNCTAD technical cooperation currently financed by Spain include international investment agreements; negotiations on trade facilitation; negotiations on trade in services at the multilateral, regional and bilateral levels; and training courses organized by Trainfortrade in cooperation with ALADI (Latin American Free Trade Association).
