Finland confirms continued support for ITC - Finnish government makes €3.17m available for 2016 and 2017

The Government of Finland has announced that it will make available €3.17 million of funding to the International Trade Centre (ITC) for the 2016-2017 period. The funding will be used to strengthen ITC’s capacities to enable small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to play a greater role in achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

The continued funding from Finland will allow ITC to respond better to a steep increase in requests for trade-related technical support from developing countries.

Specifically, the Finnish support will be softly earmarked towards ITC programmes and projects focused on supporting innovation and e-solutions for business in developing countries, support to trade institutions, trade facilitation and women’s economic empowerment.

Announcing the cooperation agreement, Ambassador Terhi Hakala, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Finland to the UN in Geneva, said: : "We see ITC as a trusted partner and value their excellent work in helping small and medium-sized companies to benefit from global trade. We are particularly proud to support ITC's work on women's economic empowerment as it strengthens the society as a whole and promotes the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals at large."

ITC Executive Director Arancha González, said: ‘Finland has been a long-time partner of ITC and we are extremely grateful for this renewed commitment. This funding from Finland will allow ITC to continue to deliver and provide essential support to developing countries and their small and medium-sized enterprises.’