The managing director of Kiltimagh-based e-learning company the E-business School of Ireland has been awarded as the title of Best Trade Finance Trainer by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
Within the past twelve months Vincent O’Brien has undertaken short missions to Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Macedonia, Moldova, Mongolia, Romania, Russia, Serbia-Montenegro, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) was established in 1991 to foster the transition towards open market-oriented economies and to promote private and entrepreneurial initiative in Central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). The EBRD Trade Facilitation Programme (TFP) was activated in July 1999 with the aims to promote international trade to, from and within Central and Eastern Europe and the CIS (the EBRD countries of operations).
Over 75 issuing banks in the EBRD region participate in the programme with limits exceeding € 850m.
The EBRD award follows on from similar awards received during the month of March 2004 which have firmly placed O’Brien at the forefront of Trade Finance Training. The March awards came during a mission to Pakistan and were presented to him at a ceremony at the Institute of Bankers held recently in Karachi, Pakistan.
The Electronic Business School of Ireland (eBSI), which was founded in 1999 by managing director Vincent O’Brien’s umbrella company GTI learning, specialises in deploying blended learning in specialist areas of International Trade over the internet. Their one year International Trade Specialist (ITS) Accreditation Programme is accredited in Ireland by the Irish Exporters Association and its education arm, the Institute of International Trade of Ireland and in the Czech Republic by CzechTrade, the Czech Trade Promotion Organisation.
The one-year course trains executives in the areas of export market entry strategy, trade and customs practice, finance of international trade and e-business for international trade.
The E-business School of Ireland currently has over 280 students in more than 20 countries studying on its online campus. The company is conducting business with governments and businesses in Mongolia, Kyrgistan, Uzbekistan, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal, Malaysia, Australia, Belarus, Poland, Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia, Macedonia, Sweden, the UK and the US.
By John Kennedy
