Business Initiative Leading Development (BUILD) and International Trade Centre (ITC) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on October 29 to support joint research to facilitate trade and business environment in the country.
Nihad Kabir, Chairman of the Trustee Board of BUILD and Gerard Lynch, Director of Division Program Support of ITC signed the MoU on behalf of their respective sides, reports BSS citing a press release on Friday.
The purpose of the agreement is to provide the framework for cooperation between BUILD, Trade and Market Intelligence (TMI) and the Trade Facilitation and Policy for Business (TFBP) sections of ITC in further promoting trade and business environment of Bangladesh.
Subject to availability of funds, BUILD, a Public Private Dialogue (PPD) platform, and ITC, a joint agency of the World Trade Organization of the United Nations, agreed to cooperate on five key areas.
The key areas include organising and participating in PPD, seminars, business conferences and other similar events on issues related to international trade issues, national trade policies and reforms.
Specific areas of collaboration under the MoU include identifying common regulatory barriers in national and international trade and in proposing solutions to eliminating barriers, developing joint efforts in fund raising for implementation of activities to improve trade and business environment in Bangladesh.
The parties will regularly monitor and review their activities under this MOU, and evaluate the results of the implementation in order to ascertain whether the objectives have been met and enable them to formulate recommendations with a view to improving future cooperation.
This MOU is agreed upon within the policy framework for cooperation between United Nations organisations and its subsidiary organs with the private sector and civil society that has been established by the Secretary-General of the United Nations as part of his programme of reform.
Under this MOU, BUILD and ITC will be represented by Ferdaus Ara Begum, Chief Executive Officer, BUILD and Mondher Mimouni, Chief of Trade and Market Intelligence Section, Division of Market Development, ITC.
