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Professors at Nepal’s largest university to train students with ITC tools

1 décembre 2021
ITC News

Professors at Nepal’s oldest as well as largest university can now independently train their students to use the International Trade Centre’s robust suite of market analysis tools.

Twenty-five professors and lecturers from the Department of Economics, Tribhuvan University, participated in a five-day training organized by the Nepal Trade and Investment Programme, funded by the European Union.

The professors will be able to advise the government, the private sector and small businesses on accessing important data related to international trade, in addition to using the market intelligence tools for their own research.

The ITC online tools, which are available free for developing countries, facilitate high-quality research in international trade, especially in the academic sector in universities and colleges.

However, in Nepal, the tools are underused in academic research, mainly due to a lack of training for professors and students. For this, the EU-Nepal Trade and Investment Programme is collaborating with Tribhuvan University to enhance the capacity of selected professors and lecturers from different regions to use ITC tools in their courses and research related to international trade.

This workshop is the first of two workshops that seek to establish a wider network of certified trainers on ITC tools next to ensuring long-term sustainability in market analysis and enhancing capacities in export research.

Gobinda Bahadur Karkee, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies, said at the training: “The programme contributes to the overall goal of the government of Nepal to make use of international trade to alleviate poverty by encouraging small and medium enterprises. The training has helped create valuable human resources in the international sector.”

Dr. Ramesh Paudel, Associate Professor at Tribhuvan University’s Central Department of Economics and coordinator of the event explained: “We learned a lot about the trade database and ITC’s market analysis tools from expert trainers. These learnings can be used right away to improve ourselves as well as our students’ understanding of international trade and inform policymaking.”