Twenty students from a course on International Technology Transfer at affiliate member, the Moscow State Institute of International Relations, participated in a Vi videoconference on renewable energy technologies and development October 4. 

The lecture, based on UNCTAD's Technology and Innovation Report (TIR) 2011, was delivered by the Chief of the Taskforce on the TIR Series, Padmashree Gehl Sampath (pictured, right). 

The latest edition of the TIR proposes the implementation of renewable energy technologies (RETs) as a response to the challenge of reducing energy poverty while mitigating climate change, Gehl Sampath said.

Twelve researchers from Brazilian affiliate member, the Institute for Applied Policy Studies (IPEA), a think tank linked to the Strategic Affairs Secretariat of the Presidency of Brazil, participated in the Vi’s third fall videoconference, held October 1. 

Masataka Fujita, Head of UNCTAD’s Investment Trends and Issues Branch, led the videoconference presentation, which focused on the findings of the latest World Investment Report (WIR).

For the third consecutive year, a group of 28 students from the University of International Business and Economics, People’s Republic of China, accompanied by two academics, attended a one-week training programme at Geneva-based international organizations September 24-28.

The first joint activity with new Vi member, Morocco’s Université Mohammed V-Souissi, gathered 20 participants from academia, the Ministry of Economy and Finance, the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Moroccan Investment Development Agency, and the Chamber of Commerce, for a videoconference presentation of UNCTAD's latest World Investment Report (WIR) September 24.

The University American College Skopje (UACS) of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia has joined the Virtual Institute as its 78th institutional member, bringing the count of countries represented in the Vi to 41. The initiative of Marjan Petreski, vice-dean for research at the School of Business Economics and Management, and a participant of Vi's online course on trade and poverty, UACS' membership application was completed in record time this summer.

UACS was established in 2005 as a private university to provide high quality education in business, economics, law and political science, combining the best of European and American educational standards and practices. The university also pays special attention to cooperation with its students' future employers in order to prepare graduates whose skills match those expected in the workplace.