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NUS Law Partners WTO for Regional Trade Policy Course
On 12 March 2007, the NUS Faculty of Law will launch the first Regional
Trade Policy Course to be held in Singapore in partnership with the
World Trade Organization. This course is a milestone as it is the first
partnership between a Singapore university and the WTO. It is expected
to be run in Singapore for the next two years as well.
This intensive 12-week course, to be held at the Faculty's
newly-renovated premises at its Bukit Timah campus, will see 27 foreign
government participants from countries in the Asia/Pacific region.
Preparations for this course have been in full swing since the Faculty
won the bid to host it last year. The Faculty's Associate Professor
Locknie Hsu is Academic Coordinator of the course, and she leads a
preparatory team set up specially for it. In January this year,
Associate Professor Hsu and her colleagues attended a special workshop
at the WTO in Geneva, where they held discussions with WTO and regional
experts on the state-of-play of the current Doha Round of trade
negotiations, in preparation for the course.
The participants can look forward to a full learning programme using the
Faculty's state-of-the-art teaching tools and facilities. To augment
their classroom experience, the programme will include study visits to
institutions that demonstrate Singapore's trade and economic policies in
practice. These include visits to see how trade tools like TradeNet help
to facilitate trade in Singapore, how private-sector companies in the
Singapore logistics sector benefit from such facilitation, and how the
industrial parks and ports have contributed to Singapore's economic
development.
The course will be co-taught by WTO, NUS and regional experts and covers
virtually every aspect of WTO's agreements and negotiations. The
participants, who are trade policy officials, can expect to return to
their countries with a comprehensive view of these, to enable them to
better work in their own governments.
To mark the start of this important partnership between WTO and NUS,
there will be an Opening Ceremony and dinner for the course which will
be held from 6pm on 14 March 2007 at the campus. It will be graced by
Guest-of-Honour, Senior Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and
Information, Communication and the Arts, Dr Balaji
Sadasivan, and attended by officials from the University, Ministry of
Trade and Industry and Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Among the guests
will be former Ambassadors who have represented Singapore in WTO
negotiations – particularly those of the famed Uruguay Round. The World
Trade Organization will be represented by Mr Paul Rolian, Director of
the WTO's Institute for Training and Technical Cooperation, and Ms
Dolores Halloran, Fellowship Officer of the same Institute. The Opening
Ceremony will feature NUS students presenting dance performances
reflecting Singapore's multi-cultural society.
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