The present document reports on the progress achieved during the second year of implementation of the three-year Trade Point Programme Strategy approved by the Working Party on the Medium-term Plan and the Programme Budget in September-October 1999. In accordance with the Strategy and more particularly following the decisions of the thirty-sixth session of the Working Party in September 2000, further progress was achieved in the gradual externalization of the Programme. In particular, this included: (a) building capacities and structures in the Trade Point community that would enable them to take over the Trade Point Programme; and (b) transferring the ETO system to a suitable non-profit entity. The World Trade Point Federation was formally created and is now in the process of defining its future directions. Extrabudgetary funding was made available for the preparation of a strategic business development plan aimed at facilitating this task. The ETO system was transferred to the World Trade Point Federation. Following an agreement with the Federation, the services of Trade Points Madrid and Castilla La Mancha in Spain are being used for this purpose free of charge. The focus of future work will be on assisting the Federation to become fully operational and self-sustainable and on consolidating the membership of the Trade Point Programme. However, capacity development activities to support the latter are suffering seriously from lack of extrabudgetary funding
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International Institute for Trade and Developement : UNCTAD Collection
