Promoting trade and sustainable economic development in the Mediterranean: UfM Secretary General meets with WTO, UNCTAD, UNITAR and UNECE

Geneva, 27-28 January 2020. Following UfM’s commitment to contributing to a greater economic integration in the Mediterranean, UfM Secretary General (SG), Nasser Kamel, held bilateral meetings in Geneva with Roberto Azevêdo, Director General of WTO, Mukhisa Kituyi , Secretary General of UNCTAD, Seth Nikhil, Executive Director of UNITAR, and OIga Algayerová, Executive Secretary of UNECE.

On his first meeting with Roberto Azevêdo, Director-General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), SG Kamel provided a background on the trade-related UfM scope of action, which includes the deepening of the South-South economic integration and a strengthening of the Euro-Mediterranean trade partnership, inter alia through the organization of the UfM Trade and Investment Forum, trade-related technical trainings and the expected UfM Progress Report on Regional Integration, hence providing the ground for a potential collaboration between the two organizations in the future.

The central role of trade and investment was also underlined in the UfM SG’s meeting with Mukhisa Kituyi, Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). Both Secretaries General agreed the UfM and UNCTAD will enhance their collaboration in the areas of trade, investment, digital economy, E-commerce and blue economy.

Regarding the implementation of SDGs in the region, UfM SG also had the opportunity to meet with Nikhil Seth, Executive Director United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), and discuss its strategy to support the implementation of the 2030 Agenda in the Euro-Mediterranean Region, and they agreed to explore the possible means of collaboration between the two organizations in the areas of Women Entrepreneurship, Technical and vocational training and the application of satellite data and analysis.

In the framework of his first visit to Geneva, the SG Kamel also met OIga Algayerová, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE). The UfM works together with UNECE in the water sector, making sure the UfM Regional Water Agenda is in line with its Water Convention, the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes. The UfM has also been collaborating with UNECE in the development and implementation of the Mediterranean Strategy for Sustainable Development 2016-2025 Action Plan and in the works of the Mediterranean Committee on Education for Sustainable Development.