MEDIA RELEASE
Released By:
Downer
I am pleased to announce that Australia will fund a special training program
for trade negotiators from African countries this year. Forty participants are
expected to attend the course, representing approximately twenty African
countries.
The program will be held in May in South Africa and follows an extremely
successful Australian funded trade negotiations course that was held in August
2000.
The Prime Minister announced Australia's commitment to supporting trade
negotiation training programs at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in
Durban, South Africa in 1999. The 2002 course is a further demonstration of that
commitment.
The program will assist key African policy makers to maximise their
engagement in and influence on trade negotiations with other members of the
World Trade Organisation. Australia will fund the course in conjunction with
Government of South Africa.
Australia has committed over $ 24 million in the last two years to an active
trade-related program of technical cooperation and policy dialogue with
developing countries in the Commonwealth. The program is aimed at strengthening
their capacity to participate in global and regional trading arrangements and
take advantage of new trade opportunities.
Activities include on-going support for the Commonwealth Trade and Investment
Access Facility (TIAF) and activities to strengthen customs and quarantine
procedures in Pacific island countries.
Media contacts:
Matt Francis (Ministerial) 02 6277 7500 / 0419 206 890
Fionna Douglas (AusAID) 02 6206 4960 / 0412 804 489