On 20 June 2022, the Ambassador of Latvia to the United Nations in Geneva, Bahtijors Hasans, was elected President of the Trade and Development Board of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) for a one-year term.
The main drivers of UNCTAD are G77 and developing countries, making this election an excellent opportunity for highlighting Latvia’s name worldwide and presenting the country as a dependable negotiator at these times of global challenges.
Following his appointment, Ambassador Hasans underlined that in view of global challenges and the need for common action to ensure a better world for the coming generations, cooperation among countries in UNCTAD was needed more than ever before.
From Latvia’s perspective, a noteworthy field of UNCTAD’s activity is digital economy and electronic commerce. UNCTAD provides support to developing countries in capacity building and e-commerce, and carries out e-trade readiness assessments with regard to developing countries.
Background information
UNCTAD was established in 1964, and it is responsible for the promotion of economy and sustainable development with the focus on trade, finance, investments and technologies. UNCTAD supports developing countries in their efforts to integrate themselves into the global economic system. UNCTAD operates like a forum for inter-governmental discussion on the issues of economic development; carries out research, policy analysis and data collection; provides significant technical assistance mainly to the least developed countries, and to a lesser extent, to countries in transition economy.
The Trade and Development Board, which is made up of 157 UNCTAD member countries, runs UNCTAD’s work between the conference sessions. The Trade and Development Board is responsible for drawing up UNCTAD programme plans.