November 13th?Hakim Ben Hammouda, Director of the Institute forTraining and Technical Assistance of the WTO Secretariat, andPatrick Low, Director of Economic Research and Statistics , wroteto the School of WTO Research and Education of SIFT a joint letterin which they referred that SIFT application for the WTO ChairsProgram (WCP) had been approved, making SIFT become one of thefirst 12 academic institutions awarded WTO chairs in the world inthe history of WTO (including GATT). Professor Zhang Lei is amongthe first 12 chair-holders sponsored by the WTO Secretariat.
The WCP will provide funding to the Chairs for four years. In theprocess of the implementation of the WCP, the Secretariat will alsoinject financial and academic resources into the chairs. TheAdvisory Board will monitor and guide the implementation to ensurethe quality of the WCP.