YOUNG and rising diplomats in Guyana’s public and private sector have been lectured on how to improve their negotiation skills with this expertise coming all the way from Geneva, Switzerland.

A lecture series, ‘Geneva to Georgetown’, facilitating the same was held via skype on Thursday at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs where several diplomats and aspiring diplomats from the public and private sector were in attendance.

The event was coordinated by the Ministry’s Foreign Service Institute (FSI) and Guyana’s Ambassador in Geneva in conjunction with the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

It marks the fourth lecture series to be held on matters directly addressing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of countries.

On this occasion, it took on the topic: “Negotiating and Re-negotiating for Sustainable and Beneficial Outcomes”.

In his opening remarks, FSI Director, Ambassador Ronald Austin stated: “[These] lectures are intended to really provide information and to provoke discussions and ideas to help us at the level of training our diplomats here and also proving the kind of data we need to improve, expand and inform our foreign policy.”

He explained that knowledge on negotiation is central to diplomacy and will enable persons to become effective diplomats.

Meanwhile, presenting on the topic was Deputy Permanent Representative of the Singapore Mission to the WTO and the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), Ye-Min Wu.

Wu has worked with the Foreign Affairs Ministry in Singapore for over a decade and has chaired United Nations (UN) negotiations and represented the Group of 77 and China in UN negotiations in sustainable development issues.

She told the attendees that people negotiate daily and the more someone practices negotiating skills the more he or she can improve.

In explaining what leads to a poor negotiation results, Wu implored that diplomats must be able to identify the difference between the bargaining position and the existing interest.

She stated that diplomats must also be able to determine the negotiable and non-negotiable matters and the “low-hanging fruits” for negotiation.

She reminded that even when differing interests exists, it is not an excuse for heated dispute.

During the presentation, Wu also introduced topics such as packaged deals; the negotiator’s pause; clear messaging; a time horizon; the forming of relationships in negotiations; a-symmetrical negotiations; the non-compromise of values and more.

Following her presentation, there were comments and questions from the panel audience.

The first such series was held in March 2019 and since then topics such as health, climate change and the fourth industrial revolution have been discussed.

There are two more lectures scheduled for the initiative with the very next which expected on September 14, 2019.