Viewpoint

Below are views from African partners in JITAP, drawn from their comments at a presentation of JITAP to the Joint Advisory Group.

M.K. Mwandoro, Director General, Board of External Trade Dar es Salaam, United Republic of Tanzania

"My country has been fully involved in programming and implementing JITAP. The institution which I lead has been entrusted with the imple-mentation of six of the 15 clusters under JITAP. We have made substantial headway. We are setting up a Reference Centre for the business community, after having received all the necessary equipment, and organized relevant workshops on MTS issues. We are working on a matrix of export products and have begun preparation of two guides, Trade Secrets and How to Approach Banks. We have already set up the Tanzanian Trade Point and are strengthening its services.

"We have found JITAP to be a unique and very useful generic tool appropriate to achieve our needs. It is our conviction that the United Republic of Tanzania and other beneficiary countries will have benefited tremendously from this unique and what I dare refer to as a "jump start" process designed to mainstream beneficiaries to the MTS."

R. Rutaagi, Executive Director, Uganda Export Promotion Council Kampala, Uganda

"In Uganda, we have trained officers, and have made considerable progress on our national versions of Trade Secrets and How to Approach Banks. The trade analysis matrix covering 22 exportable products is well under way...

JITAP's cluster system brings a well-focused agenda and innovatively simplifies what would otherwise be an extremely difficult and ambitious inter-state programme."

V. Saouhet Bizié, Director, Regional and International Trade Organizations, Ministry of External Trade Promotion, Côte d'Ivoire

"In Còte d'Ivoire, JITAP got underway in July 1998 with agreement on a national implementation plan. We are developing Trade Secrets and How to Approach Banks. We found the symposia and specialised regional workshops enlightening. They helped us understand the new Multilateral Trading System, and strengthen our export capacities. Given the globalization of trade, we believe that building our capacity to understand the multilateral trading system is essential. I would like to take this opportunity to emphasize our interest in the modules dealing with market research, export strategies, training and trade analysis, so that we develop the skills to use these tools independently."