The World Trade Centers Association (also abbreviated as: WTCA) founded in 1970, is a not-for-profit, non-political association dedicated to the establishment and effective operation of World Trade Centers (WTCs) as instruments for trade expansion representing 316 members in 91 countries. The WTCA is an unofficial umbrella trade association that unites corporations and government agencies in international trade. The WTCA's founding principles are:
- To encourage the expansion of world trade;
- To promote international business relationships and understanding among nations;
- To foster increased participation in world trade by industrializing nations;
- To create and encourage mutual assistance and cooperation among members; and
- To promote and further the concept of the World Trade Center.
The WTCA is governed by a 24-member international Board of Directors, composed of executives from WTCA members around the world, and elected by the membership. Eight permanent committees have been established to carry on the work of the Association in the following fields:
- Committee on Facilities and Functions
- Committee on International Relations and Development
- Committee on Planning and Finance
- Committee on Public Relations and Information
- Committee on Tourism, Hospitality and Cultural Exchange
- Committee on Trade Education, Training and Research
- Committee on Trade Fairs, Trade Marts and High Tech Parks
- Committee on WTC Standards and Quality
- Committee on Peace & Stability through trade
In December, 2008 WTCA Committee on Peace and Stability through Trade awarded its first Global Corporate Leadership award to Robert Thompson, Founder of CenTradeX, inc. Nashville, TN
The WTCA has more than 287 licensed world trade affiliates in 88 countries and more than 750,000 companies and individuals
Famous quotes containing the words world, trade, centers and/or association:
“We come into the world laden with the weight of an infinite necessity.”
—Albert Camus (1913–1960)
“Conversation is a traffick; and if you enter into it, without some stock of knowledge, to ballance the account perpetually betwixt you,—the trade drops at once: and this is the reason ... why travellers have so little [good] conversation with natives,—owing to their [the natives’] suspicion ... that there is nothing to be extracted from the conversation ... worth the trouble of their bad language.”
—Laurence Sterne (1713–1768)
“But look what we have built ... low-income projects that become worse centers of delinquency, vandalism and general social hopelessness than the slums they were supposed to replace.... Cultural centers that are unable to support a good bookstore. Civic centers that are avoided by everyone but bums.... Promenades that go from no place to nowhere and have no promenaders. Expressways that eviscerate great cities. This is not the rebuilding of cities. This is the sacking of cities.”
—Jane Jacobs (b. 1916)
“In this great association we know no North, no South, no East, no West. This has been our pride for all these years. We have no political party. We never have inquired what anybody’s religion is. All we ever have asked is simply, “Do you believe in perfect equality for women?” This is the one article in our creed.”
—Susan B. Anthony (1820–1906)