The Temasek Foundation Centre for Trade & Negotiations (TFCTN) Executive Programme is a six-week capacity building and training program focused on trade negotiations and economic issues. Participants are drawn from various government agencies and ministries in Asia. These officials include mid-career and senior level staff from trade and industry, as well as finance, agriculture, and other government agencies that handle trade policy formulation. Participants include not only the individuals specifically responsible for day-to-day negotiations in the World Trade Organization (WTO), regional or bilateral free trade areas, but may include those responsible for implementing these agreements in the domestic arenas, including upholding international trade law obligations.
The Executive Programme provides government officials with the practical, interdisciplinary knowledge needed to effectively participate in international trade negotiations. The overall objective of the course is to assist regional states in implementing WTO and FTA agreements domestically through training and to create a greater awareness of the rules of various trading regimes. This will help regional and local officials devise strategies to best meet the challenges of—and benefit from—global trade liberalization and economic integration.
In addition to materials about negotiation techniques, the Programme provides officials with in-depth knowledge of topics like intellectual property rights issues related to trade negotiations. Other topics covered in the programme include the dispute settlement mechanism of the WTO and anti-dumping and countervailing duty laws. The Centre makes extensive use of case studies and simulations in teaching. Lessons are carefully targeted for the Asian participants in the programme. The training instructors for each section of the programme are recognized experts in the field, including officials from the WTO Secretariat, former trade negotiators, international lawyers, and top-notch academics.
Participants are mid-level officials in trade or foreign affairs ministries located throughout the Asia-Pacific region. We are looking for people who are actively involved in developing, negotiating, or implementing trade policy. The Programme is conducted in English, so adequate language skills are critical. This is not an introductory level course, although we are fully aware that applicants will have gaps in their knowledge in various areas.
The S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) serves as the institutional home for the Centre. RSIS is an autonomous graduate school of international affairs as well as one of the leading think tanks in the Asia-Pacific region.
For additional information, please contact:
Mr. Swee-Seng Quak, Administrator, Temasek Foundation Centre for Trade & Negotiations, at (65) 6790-6415 or isssquak@ntu.edu.sg.
Course Details:
The TFCTN Executive Programme for 2010 will run from October 11 – November 19 at the Nanyang Executive Centre (NEC). The NEC is a small hotel and conference facility located on the campus of the Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.
The cost of delivering the course has been underwritten by a generous donation from the Temasek Foundation. Participants are responsible for making their own travel arrangements to Singapore. We project accommodation and per diem costs for the six weeks of the course at SGD$6,500. TFCTN has a limited number of scholarships available to qualified applicants.
The course runs daily from 9 am-5 pm, Monday through Friday at the NEC.
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About TFCTN:
The Temasek Foundation Centre for Trade & Negotiations (TFCTN) is a policy research centre at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University. The Centre is dedicated to improving the process of international economic negotiations, with a particular focus on increasing capabilities and access for developing states in the Asia-Pacific. The Centre uses rigorous empirical research to create new ideas and to generate informed debate leading to practical policy alternatives for improving global negotiations on trade and economic issues.
The Centre also conducts a wide range of activities designed to increase capabilities and build sustainable capacity for effective participation in negotiations for states in the Asia-Pacific region. The audience for these events includes not only a wide range of government officials but also business leaders, policy advocates, academics and researchers, members of the media, and the wider public in Singapore and beyond.
