Luanda - The Angolan specialist in International Trade and Investment Law, Lucas Ricardo, is on the shortlist of 19 successful candidates, out of more than 5,000 applicants, who competed in the Young Professionals Program 2025 edition, on Friday in Geneva, Switzerland.
Launched in 2016, this one-year program organized by the World Trade Organization (WTO), offers qualified young professionals from member countries, the opportunity to improve their understanding of the organization's issues and international trade.
Angola's ambassador, Margarida Izata, praised the WTO's initiative as a unique way to attract professionals from member countries that are under-represented in the international civil service system.
Quoted in a statement, the Angolan diplomat suggested replicating this program in all regional and international organizations, with the aim of improving the chances of recruiting talented young people from developing countries.
According to the ambassador, the success of the program is made possible by the generous and continuous support of many donors and contributors to the Global Trust Fund, having emphasized its effectiveness in training and specializing young employees from Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and developing countries.
Margarida Izata said she expects that new projects would emerge in the future, such as shorter training sessions and internships, to facilitate a fairer and more balanced international trade system, firmly committed to sustainable development.
Lucas Ricardo's profile
Lucas Narciso Pimenta Ricardo holds a Master's degree in International Trade and Investment Law by the World Trade Institute, University of Bern (Switzerland). He is the author of the book “Exchange, Trade and Regulation: From Economic Multilateralism to Exchange Rate Manipulation” and of academic articles on economic development, foreign trade and international investment.
He was the regional representative for Southern Africa at the Afronomicslaw Academic Forum (2020-2021), a researcher for the International Law without Borders (DIsF) portal (2020-2021), a member of the Public Finance, Equity and Democracy group (PUC Minas) (2019-2021) and Research Director of the Academic Research Center (NAP) of the Minas Gerais Faculty of Law (2019-2021). ACC/QCB/DAN/AMP
