What is the World Trade University?

The World Trade University is a United Nations global education and partnership initiative that primarily focuses on providing advanced educational opportunities in world trade to entrepreneurs and executives in developing countries and emerging economies. It plays a key role through its multilateral mandate to facilitate and build partnerships to support successful engagement of developing countries and emerging economies in the multilateral trading system.

What is the WTU's Mission?

The mission of the World Trade University can be summed up in three words: learn, connect, and create.

In keeping with the aspirations proclaimed in the Charter of the United Nations, the WTU will provide the people of the world with more opportunities to learn to manage and promote trade, to connect with potential partners and sources of knowledge, and in doing so, create new ways for emerging economies to grow, progress and prosper.

The WTU’s mission is designed to further accelerate fulfillment of its original mandate: “to enhance the capacity of the present and to develop the potential of the future trade leaders to better manage the challenges of the multilateral trading system so that prosperity is shared”.

What is the WTU's Vision?

The WTU’s vision is to provide a ‘bridge to a new way forward’ in addressing the issues, challenges and opportunities of world trade and globalization faced by developing and emerging economies. It will achieve this by providing ways to better manage globalization and promote shared prosperity through the delivery of graduate level academic and executive learning programs, and by enhancing global public-private sector partnerships.

 To this end, the role of the WTU’s global platform has been officially declared as a United Nations Global Partnership Mechanism.

The WTU, a Canadian initiative, was launched by the United Nations as a global public-private partnership mechanism at the Third United Nations Conference on Least Developed Nations, hosted by the European Union in Brussels in May 2001, engaging agencies of the United Nations, including the Executive Office of the UN Secretary General, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP); the World Trade Organization; and inter-governmental entities such as the ‘Group of 77 and China’ (G-77) the Commonwealth Secretariat; and departments of the Government of Canada. The WTU’s global platform is recognized through UN Resolution A/58/487 and UN Secretary General’s Report to the General Assembly A/59/319.

WTU Global Secretariat is a coordinating body of the World Trade University. It activities include: research on the trade issues both globally and locally; research on educational needs of global and local business communities; design, organization and delivery of learning programs with the cooperation of its partners; organizing Global Platform Events, including the World Trade Forum and related sub-initiatives (WSYE, WTMS, WSIE, WTFF); providing internships to aspiring entrepreneurs and young leaders; developing and managing programmes and delivering trade promotion services.

Students, executives, entrepreneurs and officials from developing and emerging economies will benefit from increased access to quality world trade education, unbiased advice on business opportunities in the global trading system, and the opportunity to forge joint ventures and relationships with new partners.  In turn, new and emerging trading nations will benefit as they can become better prepared to take advantage of rule-based trade.

There is growing demand among developing and emerging economies for world trade capacity-building, particularly human resources and institutional capacity.  Through its partnerships and activities to be carried out through subsidiary locations to be established throughout the world, the WTU will provide a unique bridge to meet this demand.

The WTU’s activities comprise (1) advanced and applied graduate academic programs and executive learning programs, (2) global platform initiatives, and (3) trade related services.

The WTU will offer graduate level programs in accession to WTO and trade negotiation, energy, trade in natural resources including mining, financial services including insurance and  investment, trade and technology, tourism, trade and economics, agriculture, logistics and multi-modal transportation, environment, and other key areas. The 16-month programs leading to Executive or International MBA’s will be split between the WTU-Canada campus to be located in B.C., and other WTU campuses to be located elsewhere in the world (e.g. Shanghai, Sao Paolo). Each program is based on a series of modules developed by international experts in the field and instructed by visiting and local faculty in two-week periods.

The WTU’s Executive Development Programs (EDP) will strengthen the global trade and leadership capacity of individuals and their organizations. Thy will consist of two-week courses and will be offered around the world, and at the WTU global headquarters in B.C. They will be accessible to the province’s business community. Programs participants will be introduced to real case studies and global trade situations and challenges in their field of interest and specialization. Coordinated from WTU’s new global headquarters in B.C., the programs will commence delivery in 2005, and will focus on various global trade related topics, both at a basic introductory level, and at an advanced level addressing timely, highly complex concepts.

WTU will also offer online learning courses through Ecademy. A range of short and extended modules on world trade, including business management, leadership and entrepreneurship will be offered. Ecademy online courses will be integrated into the WTU’s core curriculum for its academic and executive learning programs, with a wide range of courses being made available to general learners on a broad scale around the world.

All of WTU’s learning programs will be delivered using a blending learning model that combines face to face, classroom techniques with online learning tools and modules, coaching and mentoring, as well as knowledge resources.

The WTU’s lecturers and faculty members will be renowned experts on various aspects of world trade. Some will be based with international trade related agencies such as UNCTAD, UNDP, World Bank and WTO. Most will also come from leading educational institutions, think tanks, private sector, multilateral organizations, and governmental institutions. There will be opportunities for trade experts, officials and existing faculty members from key British Columbian educational institutions to join the WTU faculty.

WTU’s global platform initiatives include the World Trade Forum, the South-South Trade Forum, and the World Summit of Young Entrepreneurs of the U.N., the World Tourism Marketing Summit, World Summit of Indigenous Entrepreneurs, and World Tourism Fortune Forum. All initiatives have been welcomed by the Secretary-General (See SG report A/58/319) and the General Assembly (See GA Resolution 58/220) as new global public-private-partnership mechanisms aimed at enhancing and expanding inclusive cooperation in trade, financial services, and human development for achieving the United Nations Millennium Development Goals.

These initiatives collectively provide an effective learning forum and framework engaging multilateral agencies, governmental bodies, private sector entrepreneurs and professionals in the fields of trade, finance, investment, technology and e-commerce to forge new partnerships and opportunities for growth and shared prosperity.

The WTU’s portfolio of global trade services will enhance the sustainability of the opportunities resulting from the educational, knowledge and relationship building activities from its other strategic areas. These services will be offered through a new World Trade Resource Centre (connections to trade resources), and the World Trade Knowledge Network (trade related knowledge based communities).

The WTU has many public and private partnerships around the world. Its key global partnerships include:

>United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). UNCTAD promotes integration of trade and development and related issues in the areas of investment, finance, technology, enterprise development and sustainable development.  (please see www.unctad.org).

>United Nations Development Program (UNDP) through the Special Unit for South-South Cooperation (SU/SSC). SSU was created by the General Assembly as a Special Unit within UNDP to promote technical cooperation among developing countries (see http://tcdc.undp.org/about.asp, and see www.undp.org ).

>World Bank/Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA). As a division of the World Bank Group, MIGA promotes foreign direct investment into developing countries (see www.miga.org ).

>World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC). The WTTC represents global business leaders comprising the presidents, chairs and CEO's of 100 of the world's foremost tourism related companies. (see www.wttc.org ).

The WTU is currently working to establish two campus operations in China, and establish its global campus and headquarters in the Province of British Columbia, Canada. In addition, it is currently considering and reviewing proposals for Brazil, East Africa, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and South Asia. The WTU expects to operate in at least five countries by 2010.

The WTU is strongly considering plans to locate its global headquarters in the planned Canada Education Park in Chilliwack. The education park’s future design will provide WTU’s international and domestic students with a world class learning environment. As well, the Chilliwack area, often referred to as B.C.’s ‘green belt’ is the gateway to BC’s interior and Heartland Region, where about 70% of B.C.’s international trade activity occurs. The region’s high level of trade activity will provide WTU’s students with excellent opportunities for applied learning and potential trade relationships with B.C. enterprises.

In Fall of 2004, the WTU signed a memorandum of understanding with Chilliwack Economic Partners Corporation, the City of Chilliwack and University College of the Fraser Valley to further explore the potential benefits of WTU being established at the new site. Canada Education Park is a new initiative of the City of Chilliwack, Chilliwack Economic Partners Corporation, the Government of British Columbia, and the University College of the Fraser Valley. For more information on the Canada Education Park, please contact Mr. John Jansen, President of Chilliwack Economic Partners Corporation, at (604) 792-7839.

return to top