UNIDO ITPO Heads’ Meeting 2017 held in Bahrain
UNIDO ITPO Heads’ Meeting 2017 held in Bahrain
Source : UNIDO
04-Apr-2017
The annual UNIDO ITPO Heads’ Meeting took place in Manama, Bahrain from 3-4 April 2017. The meeting served as an opportunity for UNIDO staff and the ITPO Heads to come together and meet with important partners including H.E. Sheikh Ebrahim Bin Khalifa Al-Khalifa, Undersecretary at the Ministry of Finance and National Economy of Bahrain and Honorary Chairman of the Board of Trustees for the Arab International Center for Entrepreneurship and Investment (AICEI), as well as representatives from the Ministry of Industry and Commerce of Bahrain.
The meeting also provided an opportunity to discuss the ITPO business plan and strategic framework for the coming years and served as a platform to discuss a range of issues related to investment promotion and technology transfer. During the deliberations, H.E. Sheikh Ebrahim Bin Khalifa Al-Khalifa commended UNIDO and ITPO Bahrain for the valuable support provided to entrepreneurs in Bahrain and worldwide.
The Undersecretary for Industry Affairs of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce of Bahrain, Osama Mohamed Al Arrayedh, thanked UNIDO and ITPO Bahrain for more than 20 years of fruitful relationship and highlighted their importance in the organization of the Global Entrepreneurs Forum, held for the first time in 2015. This year, the Global Entrepreneurs Forum will be held from 8-9 November in Manama, in conjunction with the Invest Bahrain Forum. The Undersecretary requested UNIDO’s support to organize the Invest Bahrain Forum and UNIDO agreed to promote it through its ITPO Network.
Calzadilla-Sarmiento, Director of the UNIDO Department of Trade, Investment and Innovation (TII), delivered a presentation on TII’s overall strategy and on the ways in which the ITPO Network can be further integrated in it. He also highlighted the importance of aligning the ITPO Network with UNIDO’s Programme for Country Partnership (PCP) and of utilizing the Network to achieve the SDGs, in particular SDG 9 on industry, innovation and infrastructure. Lucia Cartini, UNIDO ITPO Coordinator, presented the ITPO Network’s business plan, which will be validated by all ITPOs this year.
UNIDO’s ITPO Network includes offices in Manama, Bahrain; Beijing and Shanghai, China; Bonn, Germany; Rome, Italy; Tokyo, Japan; Seoul, Republic of Korea; Lagos, Nigeria; and Moscow, Russian Federation.