Geneva, 6 July 2009 -- The United Nations General Assembly today confirmed by acclamation the appointment of Supachai Panitchpakdi to a second four-year term as Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). His term will run from 1 September 2009 to 31 August 2013.
"I am honoured to continue with the important work of this organization, especially at such a critical time for the economies of developing countries", Mr. Supachai said.
Mr. Supachai studied in the Netherlands from 1963-1973 on the strength of a scholarship from the Bank of Thailand, receiving a Master´s Degree in econometrics and development planning and a Ph.D. in economic and planning and development from the Netherlands School of Economics (now Erasmus University) in Rotterdam. Following completion of his doctoral dissertation, he was a Visiting Fellow at Cambridge University, where he conducted research on development models.
Mr. Supachai is the author of a number of books, including Educational Growth in Developing Countries (1974); Globalization and Trade in the New Millennium (2001); and China and the WTO: Changing China, Changing World Trade (2002, co-authored with Mark Clifford).
Mr. Supachai was born in Bangkok in 1946. He is married and has a son and a daughter.
