Foreword
My congratulations to the winners and participants of the WTPO Awards 2024.
Every day, trade promotion organizations around the world are transforming trade and changing lives. Their work makes it possible for micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) to have the services they need to grow, compete, and trade—and to do so in a way that helps their communities thrive. And with conflicts, climate change, supply chain disruptions, and other crises increasingly putting the future of MSMEs at risk, the role of TPOs is more important than ever.
The winners of the 2024 WTPO Awards have demonstrated extraordinary resilience and creativity, often in the face of tough odds and high risks. They are storytellers, innovators, and advocates for change, who have stepped up time and again to meet every challenge that today’s uncertain landscape has put in their way—while always putting the needs of the MSMEs they serve first.
Together, Business France, Switzerland Global Enterprise, and ApexBrasil are showing us new ways to look at the trade and investment landscape through their approaches to partnerships, technologies, inclusion, and sustainability. Their stories in this publication, alongside those of the WTPO Awards runners’ up from Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, and Namibia, are examples of how TPOs are helping bring the goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development within reach, especially as the international community starts putting the new Pact for the Future into motion.
Pamela Coke-Hamilton ITC Executive Director
