Since 1964, the International Trade Centre has helped the business sectors of developing and transition economies to develop exports. Its goal is to help these countries to achieve sustainable human development through exports, with an emphasis on competitiveness, encouragement of partnerships and fostering innovation.

Complementarity

ITC is a joint technical cooperation agency of the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the World Trade Organization (WTO), concentrating on business aspects of trade development. While UNCTAD and WTO work principally with governments, ITC works mainly with the business community.

ITC facts and figures

What ITC does:

• Mission: Trade development, focusing on export growth. 
• Clients: Business sectors of developing and transition economies. ITC estimates some 33% of its programme delivery supports LDCs.

Who ITC is:

• Staff: 213 in 2004. Consultants: 800 consultancy assignments in 2004 with a majority from developing and transition economies.

How ITC operates:

• Funding: USD49 million in 2004.

• Sources: UN and WTO finance ITC’s regular programme equally. Donor governments and civil society organisations finance specific programmes and projects.

ITC's vision:

• Be a recognized centre of excellence for trade development. 
• Help developing countries export more competitively.  
• Be pragmatic in its approach and achieve widest impact. 
• Foster a supportive, stimulating and intellectually rewarding environment for staff.

ITC's goals are:

• Multilateral trading system. Facilitate the integration of developing and transition economies into the multilateral trading system.
• Trade development strategies. Support national efforts to design and implement trade development strategies. 
• Trade support services. Strengthen key trade support services, both public and private.
• Sectoral performance. Improve export performance in sector of critical importance and opportunity. 
• Competitiveness. Foster international competitiveness within the business community as a whole and among small and medium-sized firms in particular.

ITC's technical programmes are:

• Strategic and operational market research. 
• Business advisory services. 
• Trade information management. 
• Export training capacity development. 
• Sector-specific product and market development. 
• Trade in services.  
• International purchasing and supply chain management.

For further information, please consult the website of ITC: http://www.intracen.org/