At the inauguration ceremony, Mr Ahoomey-Zunum highlighted the importance of technical assistance in supporting the country's economic development and in developing the know-how of civil servants working on trade issues. He said that this technical assistance was timely in view of Togo's recent Trade Policy Review by the WTO membership.

The inauguration of the Reference Centre was followed by a training session attended by 35 participants who stated that the Centre would be useful as a learning centre, enabling them to enrol in the e-Learning activities proposed by the WTO Secretariat. Follow-up presentations focused on the role of the WTO, the Reference Centres Programme, international trade statistics and tariffs databases, WTO information resources (website, Documents Online, statistics databases), the e-Learning programme, the Global Technical Assistance Database and the Progressive Learning Strategy. Specific sessions were organized to familiarize Togo’s officials with sources of trade information.

Mr Mô Ahmed Bin Daoudou, who had just completed his WTO Mission Internship Programme at the Permanent Mission of Togo in Geneva, was appointed Reference Centre Manager. One of his challenges will be to raise the visibility of the Centre and to promote it to the local community, especially the academic community. This issue was discussed with the WTO representative. Events, such as hosting on-site screenings of WTO videos, are envisaged. 

In addition, the Minister said he would send information about the Centre to all government ministries. The Reference Centre training was followed by an Academic Workshop for graduate and postgraduate students at the University of Lomé. Sessions at the workshop covered the role of the WTO and the ongoing Doha Development Agenda negotiations. A session was also held on using WTO information resources and the benefits of the academic programme implemented by the WTO Secretariat. The workshop was attended by nearly 50 participants. It was followed by a roundtable discussion on current research on the multilateral trading system and courses proposed by the university on international trade. This discussion was led by Professor Nadéjo Bigou Lare, Dean of the Faculty of Economics and Business.

The Reference Centre was established at the Ministry at the request of the national authorities. It has been supplied with three computers, colour printers and a photocopier, a video projector, and a wide range of WTO publications (books and CD-ROMs).