By Mehrin Karim
The National Board of Trade Sweden (also called Kommerskollegium) held its pilot Trade Academy Training for 2016-17 to provide comprehensive knowledge of modern trade and trade regulations as well as skills in analyzing, formulating and implementing trade policy in the beautiful city of Stockholm. The Trade Academy is a training program that extends over two semesters and is part of The National development cooperation. Its main aim is to improve the recipients’ ability to participate in international trade and thereby contribute to growth and poverty reduction in recipient countries. The Trade Academy is free of charge.
The course consisted of four blocks.
Phase 1 (15 June – 26 August 2016, in home country): the participants write a short paper in English, 2-5 pages, describing an example of a current trade policy challenge in his/her home country.
Phase 2 (19-30 September 2016, Stockholm): the participants attend the course in Stockholm.
Phase 3 (3 October 2016 – 10 February 2017, in home country): the participants work in home country on a paper on a chosen trade policy topic with support from mentors.
Phase 4 (13-17 February 2017): the participants attended the course in Stockholm to finalize and discuss their paper written during the phases and learn more about trade policy.
This was the first of its type and 2016-17 participants came from nine countries – Bolivia, Ecuador, Georgia, Kenya, Lebanon, Ukraine, the Seychelles, Zambia and last but not the least, Bangladesh.
The training consisted of theory interspersed with various interactive features in the form of group discussions, exercises and role playing. Many exercises have had the fictitious country Algabia as a starting point, a country with trade policy challenges to which participants have been asked to solve.
On the second phase held in Stockholm in September, lectures were delivered by NBT’s employees and covered important topics such as Rules of Origin (preferential, for FTAs and GSP), Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT), Sanitary and Phytosanitary measures (SPS), Trade Facilitation (TF) and subsidies. On the final phase held in February, each country chose a topic of their choice and presented it followed by very active discussions from other member countries and the mentors. Bangladesh presented their paper on Trade Facilitation, Challenges and Recommendations. Various key issues such as the BBIN Initiative, National Single Window system has been highlighted and Bangladesh position in the Global Trade Indicators such as Doing Business Reports and Logistic Performance Reports were also discussed.
The participants were not only confined to classes. The Trade Academy arranged a visit to the famous Ericsson studio were the Ericsson officials talked about the importance of ICT for reaching the 2030 agenda and how well the ICT industry is positioned to help achieve, or even accelerate the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.
On the last day of the training, the Director General of National Board of Trade handed the diplomas to the eleven women and twelve men from nine countries for their efforts in training Trade Academy organized by the Board of Trade. It has been rewarding both for NBT and for the participants who would now use new and innovative approaches to illustrate the importance of trade for development.
The participants after the course have received the knowledge of the importance of trade, the link between trade and economic development, and how the various trade policy issues are linked. They also acquired the knowledge of the structures, functions and roles that need to be in order to be able to implement trade policy analysis in practice.
The next round will be carried out in September 2017.
