The WTC Macau has been awarded the prestigious Silver Certification by the World Trade Center Association. The award is the result of an official certification process that was carried out by a special WTC Association Assessment Team on April 18.

   The team, which comprised Penelope Menzies, chairperson of the WTCA Committee on WTC Standards, Quality and Reciprocity, and James Reis, President of WTC Denver, minutely assessed all the facilities and services offered by the WTC Macau. The team was greatly impressed by the many improvements that have been made since the WTC Macau's first certification four years ago.

   The facilities and services that were certified covered the categories of Trade-Information Services, Business Services, WTC Club Facilities, Tenant Services, Conference Services and Trade Technology Innovations. In addition, the Club facilities received the WTCA's highly coveted Best Practice designation.

   Currently, there are just six world trade centers out of a total of 330 centers worldwide that have been awarded the Silver Certification: WTC Amsterdam, WTC Baltimore, WTC Sao Paulo, WTC Portland WTC Macau and WTC Seoul.

   The 18th General Assembly of the WTC Macau, which was held on April 3, decided to launch a string of new services, programmes and activities, including a special Planner/Organiser Service that will offer professional assistance in co-ordinating conferences, seminars, symposia and other types of meetings. In addition, a business-support office,"Asia Desk" is about to be set up to promote economic relations with the region. The new services were announced by WTC Macau President António Leça.

   The General Assembly also decided to hold an international forum on the legal aspects and economic repercussions of China's accession to the World Trade Organisation.

   The WTC Macau is in the process of setting up a fully-fledged Asia Desk to strengthen and promote economic relations between Macau and its trading partners in the region, namely Japan and Korea.

   The Asia Desk will provide investors and traders with a wealth of specific information on trade in Asia. Its highly qualified and multilingual members of staff will offer local and foreign businessmen a wide range of comprehensive consultancy and specific back-up services, based on extensive databases, economic analyses and detailed contact lists.