General Course on Foreign Direct Investment

Included in the Co-operation Programme in the Legal Field between the European Union and Macao and starting tomorrow, October 3, at 9:30 am, at the Conference Room of the Institute for Tourism Studies, is a General Course on Foreign Direct Investment. The course is structured into two modules, each unit having a duration of one week. The first module is entitled “The Fundamentals of the Foreign Direct Investment: An Economic Perspective” and will be lectured by Daniel Van den Bulcke, Professor of the University of Antwerp, Belgium. It takes place until Saturday, October 8. The second module, on “Foreign Direct Investment: Laws, Treaties and the Settlement of Disputes”, will be held from October 17 to 21 and will be presented by David Smith, former Vice-Dean at Harvard Law School and Professor at the Macao University of Science and Technology, and Rajesh Sharma, Associate Director of the Hong Kong WTO Research Institute and also Professor at the Macao University of Science and Technology. This course is jointly organised by the Institute of European Studies of Macau and the International Law Office and will be attended by around forty local participants. The sessions will be conducted in English and there is a foreseen awarding of course attendance certificates to participants who finish this activity within the required attendance limits. The Co-operation Programme in the Legal Field between the European Union and Macao, in which this course is integrated, has as its main objective the “Consolidation of the Macao Legal System”. Currently in its fourth year of execution, the Co-operation Programme will proceed until February 2007. The total budget for the programme is of 1.980.000 euros, shared in equal parts by the European Union and Macao. The co-ordination of the Co-operation Programme is at the responsibility of the International Law Office, being the organisation of the pertaining activities ensured by several other entities of the MSAR’s Government, namely the Legal and Judicial Training Centre, the Legal Affairs Bureau, the Economic Services and the Institute of European Studies, other than the International Law Office itself.