SEVEN Zambians have graduated from the Trade Academy in Stockholm, Sweden under the auspices of the National Board of Trade (NBT). The NBT is a Swedish governmental agency responsible for issues relating to foreign trade, internal market and trade policy.
The seven Zambians who included Mr Mwamina Ngwale and Mr Gilbert Chisenga from Ministry of Commerce, Trade and Industry (MCTI); Mr James Mulenga from Mulungushi University; Mrs. Edna Kabala–Litana from the Copperbelt University, and Mr Josephat Nchungo; Mr Haggai Kanenga and Mr Wisdom Kaleng’a from the University of Zambia, have successfully completed their programme at Sweden’s elite Trade Academy. This was an intensive training on advanced Trade Policy conducted across three sessions which ran from October 2017 to April, 2018 in Stockholm, and a mentorship phase which was conducted in Zambia.
Trade Academy offers comprehensive and forward-looking knowledge in analysing, formulating and implementing trade policy. The course is aimed at contributing to the development of a critical mass and increasing the capacity of trade policy experts who will be able to drive trade policy in their respective countries.
The course drew participants from ten countries which included Zambia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Lebanon. Others were from Bangladesh, Jordan, Georgia, Bolivia, and Ecuador. These constituted the second unit of the Trade Academy which was initially designed to target civil servants and evolved to add an academic dimension due to the recognition that universities played a critical role in trade policy through, for instance, training the necessary human resource which eventually serve in the public and private sectors as well as civil society.
It is in this regard that the five of the seven were lecturers drawn from the three public universities in Zambia with the specific objective of exposing them to the Trade Academy as well as the tailor-made Train the Trainer Programmes which focused on providing insights on modern and learner based teaching methodologies necessary for shaping the future of trade policy through the respective courses offered at the three universities.
The graduation ceremony officiated by the Director for Development Cooperation in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Sweden, Mr. Johannes Oljelund and the Deputy Director of the NBT, Mr. Oscar Wåglund Söderström, took place at the NBT Headquarters in Stockholm, Sweden. In his key note speech, Mr. Oljelund encouraged the participants to build a strong network amongst themselves for a formidable contribution to the future of global trade policy. And in addition, Mr. Söderström urged the graduating cohort to utilise their newly acquired skills to effectively improve trade and trade policy in their respective countries.
Among the invited guests were Zambia’s Ambassador to Sweden, Her Excellency Ms. Rose Salukatula who was accompanied by the First Secretary for Economics and Trade, Ms. Clara Chilupe. Ambassador Salukatula who was elated by the event congratulated the graduates and encouraged them to keep making Zambia proud and contribute to national development through their respective work. She further expressed her gratitude to the government of Sweden for their generosity and support in building technical capacity needed for trade-oriented economic growth in the developing countries represented particularly Zambia.
Issued by:
Nicky Shabolyo
Counsellor
ZAMBIAN EMBASSY IN SWEDEN
graduands imweeee……………… a nation of jokers
Not sure why this should be news worth reporting.
We are still so dependent on the outside world even for simple things. How many of our own universities and colleges offer courses as simple as trade, etc.?
Sweden is the home of IKEA…you should see their innovative furniture designs; worth the experience!!
Africa knows trade better than anywhere else. Talk of Ingome ilede where we started with silent exchange of goods. I thought we should be teaching the west now on this topic.
I thought Chilenje Trades was working with Swedish collaboration for about 30 years…those guys had good carpenters that State House used to order furniture from them.