UNCTAD Virtual Institute - UNCTAD Virtual Institute

Scholarships available: Third edition of Vi online course on trade and gender - Deadline: November 20

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Details: Thursday, 13 October 2016 14:55; System Administrator

Academics, policymakers and representatives of civil society in developing countries and countries with transition economies involved in research, teaching, policy formulation and implementation, or field work in the area of trade and gender, are invited to apply for participation in the third edition of the Vi online course on trade and gender.

Funded by the Governments of Finland and Sweden, the course is based on Volume 1 of the Vi teaching material on trade and gender. The seven-week course, scheduled January 9 to February 26, 2017, particularly encourages applications from qualified women.

Candidates must hold a Master's degree in Economics, Law, Political Science or related area, and have excellent knowledge of English.

Top course graduates will become part of the UNCTAD trade and gender consultancy roster, and may be considered for future assignments in this area and/or participation in intergovernmental meetings on trade and gender organized by UNCTAD.

Candidates must complete the online application process, as well as submit a current CV and nomination letter from their institution by November 20.

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TDR16 focus of Vi videoconference for Colombia

Details: Tuesday, 11 October 2016 11:44; Pablo Gabriel Bortz

Vi's Eveliina Kauppinen (left) and UNCTAD's Alfredo Calcagno A group of 63 students and lecturers from Vi core Colombian member, Universidad EAFIT, and affiliate member, Universidad de la Sabana, joined UNCTAD’s Alfredo Calcagno for a videoconference presentation of the 2016 Trade and Development Report (TDR) October 4.

Calcagno highlighted that the disappointing growth of developed economies -- less than 2 percent on average --was mainly due to aggregate demand deficiencies.

”Solvency issues of firms and households, aggravated by austerity and wage compression policies have weakened global aggregate demand," he said.

First Vi videoconference for Pakistan presents FDI trends from WIR16

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Details: Friday, 30 September 2016 14:44; Pablo Gabriel Bortz

Vi Chief, Vlasta Macku, and UNCTAD's Kalman Kalotay Fifty professors and students gathered at Vi Pakistani core university member, the Institute of Business Administration, for a videoconference on UNCTAD's 2016 World Investment Report (WIR) September 23. The presentation was conducted by Kalman Kalotay, of UNCTAD's Division on Investment and Enterprise.

"Foreign direct investment flows increased after years of fluctuations, reaching USD 1.7 trillion in 2015," he said. "However, that increase was not reflected in higher capital expenditures by large multinationals, which actually fell from USD 2.2 trillion in 2014 to USD 1.9 trillion in 2015."

Regarding the regional distribution of FDI, the WIR reports that eight of the 20 top recipients are developing countries, and six made the top-20 list for outflows.

WIR 16 topic of Vi videoconference for Colombia

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Details: Wednesday, 21 September 2016 16:58; Pablo Bortz

Vi Chief, Vlasta Macku (left) and UNCTAD'S Stephania Bonilla-Féret Thirty-one lecturers and students from Colombian core member, Universidad EAFIT, joined a Vi videoconference presentation of the latest UNCTAD World Investment Report (WIR) September 13. Another 50 or so, from afilliate members, Universidad de La Sabana and Universidad Sergio Arboleda, joined the discussion via webcast.

"Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) flows increased by 38 percent in 2015,” said report presenter, Stephania Bonilla-Féret, of UNCTAD's Division on Investment and Enterprise. “However, they lacked productive impact, as growth was mainly brought about by a surge in mergers and acquisitions (M&A) driven by corporate reconfigurations, including tax inversion." Discounting these large-scale corporate reconfigurations implies a more moderate increase of about 15 percent, she added.

New Vi online course analyzing impact of NTMs admits 70 participants

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Details: Wednesday, 07 September 2016 17:22; System Administrator

Virtual Institute e-learning Vi's latest online course, scheduled October 10 to December 4, attracted a record-breaking 267 applications from lecturers and researchers representing 73 countries around the world. The selection committee extended admission to 70 candidates from 48 developing countries and countries with transition economies.

"We received many interesting applications, but given the limited number of places available, we were unfortunately unable to accommodate all the requests," said Vi Chief, Vlasta Macku.