The Virtual Institute organized a national workshop on trade data analysis tools for 25 participants from eight Peruvian academic institutions January 25-29.

Led by Marco Fugazza, of UNCTAD's Division on International Trade in Goods and Services and Commodities, the workshop was hosted by Vi university member, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú.

The University of Jordan joined UNCTAD's Ugo Panizza for a presentation of the Trade and Development Report 2009 on December 15. Professors, students, representatives from the private sector, the chamber of commerce, and the chamber of industry, were especially interested in discussing the implications of the global financial crisis for their country and region.

The conference was moderated by Talib Awad, Vi member coordinator at the University of Jordan, and Vi's Piergiuseppe Fortunato.

Following last year's successful cooperation with Uruguayan Vi member coordinator, Marcel Vaillant, whose research was featured in the 2009 Information Economy Report, UNCTAD invites members of the Virtual Institute to submit contributions that could be reflected in the IER 2010.

The Information Economy Report (IER) is one of the flagship publications of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). The report monitors global trends in information and communication technologies (ICTs) as they affect developing countries. It serves as a valuable reference for policymakers.

On December 3 and 4 a workshop on “Regional Integration and Cooperation in Latin America” took place in Montevideo, while a twin event was held in Lima on the 7th of the same month.

The two workshops have been organized by the Virtual institute in cooperation with local universities members of the network, Universidad de la Republica in Montevideo and Ponticia Universidad Catolica in Lima, and have been designed to present the main results of a homonymous joint research project funded by the Government of Spain.

The Virtual Institute and Colombian member, EAFIT University, organized a workshop and round table discussion on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in Latin America November 19 in Medellin, Colombia.

Based on a joint project sponsored by the Government of Spain, the workshop highlighted the work of researchers from universities in Chile, Colombia Spain, and Uruguay, who examined the mining industry in Chile, the banana industry in Colombia, CSR practices in Uruguay and new legislative initiatives in the Latin American region. The results were presented at a session attended by approximately 60 academics from the region.