WTO news: what’s been happening in the WTO

WTO NEWS: 1998 PRESS RELEASES

PRESS/103
23 June 1998

WTO signs agreement with the Joint Vienna Institute


on 16 June 1998

The Joint Vienna Institute is a training facility for officials from transition economies and from  developing countries. It offers a variety of courses in economic and financial management, with a focus on applied economic policy.  It was set up at the initiative of a number of international organizations and the Austrian authorities and is funded by donors, mainly government ministries.
In practice, the WTO sponsorship will consist of “lending” WTO economists to the Institute and offering courses on trade and trade policy.

The sponsorship agreement, signed by Mr. Renato Ruggiero, Director-General of the WTO, will also provide another opportunity for the WTO to cooperate closely with the Bretton Woods institutions - the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (World Bank) and the International Monetary Fund - and with other organizations, including the Bank for International Settlements, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, who were the original founders of the Institute.