News

The Second BioTrade Congress opened on 11 December, with a focus on the integration of biodiversity and climate change strategies in the Post 2015 Development Agenda.​

2013-2014 Inter-sessional Panel of the UN Commission on Science and Technology for Development (CSTD) took place in Washington DC, from 2 to 4   December 2013.​

​According to preliminary estimates by UNCTAD and World Trade Organization (WTO), the world quarterly merchandise exports volume decreased by 0.7% in the third quarter of 2013 compared with the quarter before. At the same time, world merchandise imports volume growth remained positive at 0.3%.

The results of three national assessments on women’s entrepreneurship development (WED) in East Africa conducted using a new framework developed by ILO and UNCTAD, through its Division on Technology and Logistics, found that ICTs are increasingly important for women entrepreneurs. Thanks to the rapid spread of mobile telephony and improved international broadband connectivity, there are now more opportunities to leverage such technologies in support of entrepreneurship.​

Three-day debate found that trade affects – and is affected by – such issues as food security, job creation, poverty levels, productive capacity and the status of women.​

The globe’s longest-lasting and largest cycle of ship building finally began to slow in 2012, UNCTAD’s Review of Maritime Transport 2013 reveals, but the effects of overcapacity are still being felt. Shipping rates remained low, threatening firms’ profitability, even as the volume shipped last year increased by 4.3 per cent.