The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) has launched the Sixth Associate Programme on 22 July 2005 at the OPCW headquarters in The Hague, the Netherlands.
The OPCW Associate Programme is designed to provide chemists and chemical engineers from Member States of the Organisation, whose economies are either developing or in transition, with a better understanding of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) with a view to promoting the peaceful uses of chemistry. The 2005 OPCW Associate Programme is attended by participants from Bangladesh, Belarus, Botswana, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Colombia, Czech Republic, Ethiopia, Georgia, Ghana, India, Malaysia, Mauritius, Mexico, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Romania, Russian Federation, Tajikistan, Turkey, Uganda, Uruguay and Uzbekistan.
During the ten-week curriculum, the twenty-four Associates will have an opportunity to enhance their understanding of the CWC, with a particular emphasis on its provisions relating to the peaceful uses of chemistry. The programme facilitates industry-related national implementation of the CWC, enhances national capacities in the Member States by offering training in chemistry to personnel from industry, universities and government agencies, facilitates trade by adoption of good practices in the chemical industry, and broadens the pool of specialists from which the National Authorities and the OPCW can draw in future.
The programme consists of theoretical and practical training work at a pilot chemical plant in the University of Surrey (United Kingdom), table-top exercises, visits to specialised institutions, and industrial training in chemical plants in Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. All the concerned Member States, as well as their national chemical industry associations, have extended their support to the programme.
The Governments of Japan and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland have made generous voluntary financial contributions towards meeting the costs of the 2005 Associate Programme, which will conclude on 30 September 2005.
34/2005