South Africa's national executive symposium
on trade efficiency

Southern African business leaders and high-level civil servants will gather to discuss recent developments in the process towards global trade efficiency at the South Africa's National Event on Trade Efficiency, to be held in Midrand in parallel with UNCTAD IX. The Event is composed of the Executive Symposium on Trade Efficiency (29-30 April) and an exhibition of electronic trading technologies open from 30 April to the end of UNCTAD IX, and during the successive G-7 Conference on "Information Society and Development" (13-15 May). The National Event is organized by the South African Department of Trade and Industry with the substantive and technical cooperation of the UNCTAD secretariat and the partial funding by the Government of Switzerland. On the private sector side, IBM, Portnet and the Standard Bank of South Africa also sponsor the meeting.

The GTPNet in Midrand

Over forty Trade Point managers from developing countries and economies in transition and thirty from developed countries will have the opportunity to discuss the status of development of the Global Trade Point Network (GTPNet) at the Midrand Executive Symposium. They will display their products and services at the technological exhibition, where a model Trade Point will also be displayed. A World Trade Point Directors' meeting and two meetings of experts dealing respectively with (1) information exchange and standards in the GTPNet, and (2) financial sustainability and cooperation among Trade Points will also be held from 1 to 3 May.

Untapped potential for trade

Imagine a small business in Cuzco, Peru, producing alpaca wool sweaters and another in Surabaya, Indonesia, manufacturing teak furniture. The Peruvian sweater manufacturer sells a small percentage of their goods on the local market to tourists and delivers the rest to trading companies which export to Europe and the United States. The Indonesian cabinet-maker sells his furniture to a local warehouse which in turn sells to local upper-income customers at five times the original price.

What the sweater manufacturer and the cabinet-maker have in common are limited economic resources and, therefore, limited production capacity aimed mainly at the local market. Given their lack of access to trade information, training and credit facilities, they remain excluded from the global market.

Success stories

A small business in Senegal exports to France for the first time; a micro-enterprise in the United States finds a partner in Chile; a Tunisian company contacts a firm in China to supply a missing piece for its new machine; Cape Verde finds new markets for its fishing industry; the Maldives advertises its tourist attractions on the Internet without even having direct access to a server. Wishful thinking? No, these are but a few examples of the recent developments in the GTPNet, which connects Trade Points in all parts of the world.

Trade Points are

Centres for facilitating trade transactions, bringing together the services of all potential agents involved in trade (Customs, banks, transporters, insurance companies, etc.) either physically or via electronic connections;
Sources of trade-related information on markets, procedures, regulations;
Gateways to global networking using modern technology to provide access to international databases, find trade matches and open the door to electronic commerce.

GTPNet has expanded rapidly since its official launching in October 1994 at the United Nations International Symposium on Trade Efficiency (UNISTE). Currently, 97 countries are involved in GTPNet -- of which 17 are LDCs -- and contacts have been established with UNCTAD by another 17 countries, including 6 LDCs. There are 32 operational Trade Points in 21 countries and another 142 Trade Points either requested, being set up, or moving towards being fully operational.

Over GTPNet, Trade Points exchange a variety of trade-related information. In particular, ETOs (Electronic Trading and Investment Opportunities) have been broadcast throughout GTPNet since 1993, and have led to many completed trade transactions. A Trade Point Expert Group has recently finalized the first international standard for trading opportunities which is fully UN-EDIFACT compatible. The group will meet again in Midrand to discuss the implementation of this standard.

100 hits per minute

Another popular feature of GTPNet is its WorldWideWeb (WWW) site (http://www.unicc.org/untpdc). A wealth of trade-and investment-related information is just a mouse-click away. As of March 1996, there were two main GTPNet servers and 10 Mirror Sites in Asia, the Pacific, North America, and Eastern and Western Europe. Since its inception in January 1995, the GTPNet Web site has rapidly emerged as an important reference for world trade and investment. In January 1996, the number of hits registered at GTPNet sites was over 4.3 million, i.e. approximately 100 hits per minute.

Trade Points with their own Internet servers are connected via hyperlinks with the main GTPNet server. Trade Points without Web capability can take advantage of UNCTAD's Trade Point Internet Incubator service, whereby Trade Points send their Web pages via e-mail or diskette to the UNCTAD Trade Point Development Centre in Australia, where they are integrated into the GTPNet server.