ENSEA/CRPC 2020: ENSEA of Abidjan hosts for the 4th consecutive time the Regional Course on Trade Policy

The Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Statistique et d’Economie Appliquée (ENSEA) of Abidjan in partnership with the World Trade Organization (WTO), is organizing the 4th edition of the Regional Course on Trade Policy (CRPC) for the Francophone Africa Region for WTO members and observers from the Francophone Africa region.

Mrs. Nialé KABA, Minister of Planning and Development proceeded to the official opening of the 2020 edition, in the presence of Mr. Roberto FIORENTINO, representative of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and Mr. Albert KOUATELAY, Chief of Staff of the Minister of Trade, this Monday, February 3, 2020 at ENSEA.

This 4th edition of the CRPC in Côte d’Ivoire, which will be held for about 8 weeks, from February 3 to March 27, brought together 28 participants, all government officials from 15 countries of francophone Africa.

In his inaugural address, the Minister of Planning and Development indicated that “this type of partnership contributes to giving more visibility to ENSEA in its efforts to become the African Reference Centre for Training and Research in Statistics”.

After extending a traditional welcome, the Director of ENSEA, Dr Hugues KOUADIO, expressed his full appreciation to the Minister of Trade, Industry and SME Promotion for his commitment to ENSEA since the first edition of the CRPC. He also expressed the wish to extend the partnership between ENSEA and the WTO to other areas of collaboration through the WTO Chair.

Addressing the audience, the WTO representative, Mr. Roberto FIORENTINO mentioned that “the CRPC plays a useful role in building the capacities of trade policy makers to enable them to effectively promote and defend the interests of their countries”.

As for the representative of Minister Souleymane DIARRASSOUBA, the holding of this 4th session is a real opportunity for the Francophone States to improve their knowledge of WTO agreements, to make them evolve in the direction of equity, with a view to becoming a powerful instrument of socio-economic development.

The 2020 edition will allow the audience to deepen the understanding of the functioning of the WTO, its rules and procedures through exchange workshops, to improve networking among participants, WTO trainers and other experts.