World Trade Centers in various parts of the globe have more than achieved their basic goal of promoting international trade and fostering peace and understanding. The World Trade Centres Association was set up over 30 years ago to unite the individual World Trade Centres, promote international business relationships and foster increased participation in international trade by industrialising nations.

But many of you may not be aware of the person who has contributed to the success of the WTCA. I had the rare privilege to meet him late last year in New York. He is an engineer, physicist, entrepreneur and above all a thorough gentleman.

Through our website, it is my pleasure to introduce Guy Tozzoli, the unassuming President of the WTCA. 'Guy', as he is known to his friends and business associates, has been the WTCA President since its inception in 1970.

He was born in North Bergen, New Jersey and now resides in Westwood, New Jersey (U.S.A). A born technocrat, he received a B.S., degree in Analytic Mechanics and an M.S., Degree in Physics from Fordham University. He also did graduate work at the prestigious Princeton University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stevens Institute of Technology. Later in his career, he received an Honorary Doctor of Science Degree from Wagner College and an Honorary Doctor of Law Degree from Susquehanna University. Armed with impressive qualifications, he joined the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey in 1946 where he was involved in the design and construction of airport projects.

Later in his Port Authority career, he was responsible for the planning and construction of the Marine Terminal facilities in Brooklyn, Port Newark and Elizabeth, including the new container handling facilities at Elizabeth. He also created a Satellite Communication center in Staten Island, which is known as the Teleport. This project was subsequently sold to AT&T in 1998 for 11.1 billion dollars.

In 1962 Tozzoli was appointed Director of the Port Authoritiy's World Trade Department where he was responsible for the planning, building, renting and operating of the World Trade Centre in New York. It was a gigantic project involving 15 million square feet of floor area distributed over seven buildings, including the twin 110-storey towers, the tallest in the world at the time. It was the largest building project since the pyramids.

The innovative concepts pioneered by Mr.Tozzoli at the World Trade Center in New York attracted International attention and were directly responsible for the subsequent worldwide growth of World Trade Centers in every corner of the globe. Then Secretary General of the United Nations, U.Thant, After being briefed by Mr. Tozzoli on the goals and activities of the World Trade Center in New York, described the project as a "United nations of commerce".

Tozzoli has sought to foster peace through trade. According to him, the connection between trading and peace is just a common sense. "If I do business with you, and you owe me money, it doesn't make any sense to kill you. It doesn't make sense to go to war with one another; it makes sense to do business with one another".

Tozzoli had the vision to see that what was succeeding in New York would be good for other cities that wanted to take advantage of the growing economic importance of international business. And so he created the WTCA in 1970, and he as served as the WTCA's president for the last 30 years. Now our Association of World Trade Centers has members in 338 cities and 101 countries, representating over 750,000 affiliated companies. He sees himself as the CEO of each member WTC, and he is ceaselessly trying to help each member reach its full potential.

In 1993, Tozzoli conceived and guided the development of a major new WTCA service called TradeCard, which was patented in 1998. This electronic trade financing and transaction processing system works like a consumer credit card, reducing the paper work for importers & exporters. His idea for Tradecard steemed from a needs of the 750,000 businesses that are served by our members. Tradecard allows importers and exporters to obtain a revolving line of credit and use computer software to control payments and inventory. Today TradeCard is on the verge revolutionizing the way international trade is conducted.

More recently, Mr. Tozzoli has created the World Trade Center Corps to assist underdeveloped countries. It is made up of volunteers with a background in trade and economic development who travel to underdeveloped regions to apply their knowledge and experience to promote economic growth. In this process, carried out in close cooperation with nearby World Trade Centers, the WTC Corps is laying a foundation for the next generation in these regions to rise above their poverty and begin to realize the benefits of economic development and reform. A variety of projects have already been implemented in some of the world's poorest regions. These projects include loans to stimulate key agricultural businesses, computer training programs, mobile training sessions on small business operations and other educational activities.

Another recent WTCA initiative led by Mr. Tozzoli is designed to help the Balkan countries, which have been devastated by war and natural calamities. The energies and resources of the World Trade Centers in the region have been marshaled to help achieve the goals of the Stability Pact, created in 1999 by political leaders of the EU, the president of the U.S. and other groups to help bring peace to the region and restore trading links. To support the Stability Pact, the Balkan World Trade Centers have pledged their full cooperation in a variety of specific measures listed in an Applicative Memorandum formally signed at the October 2000 WTCA General Assembly by Mr. Tozzoli and the World Trade Centers involved. The memorandum was later approved by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. One of the projects already underway is to establish an entire pavilion at the September 2001 Zagreb Fair for World Trade Centers in the Stability Pact countries and to help those World Trade Centers exhibit manufactured products of the companies they represent. Similar projects will eventually be carried out in every Balkan Country.

In view of the leadership he has provided in these and other projects, it comes as no surprise that Guy Tozzoli has been nominated on five occasions for the Nobel Peace Prize. The nomination is based on the work of the WTCA under Tozzoli's leadership in helping to bring peace among all nations through trade.

When the South Korean Assembly nominated Mr. Tozzoli as a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997, he received letters of recommendation from Mr. Mikhail Gorbachov, Archbishop Desmund M. Tutu, President F.W. De Klerk and many others. At the request of the Nobel Peace Prize Institute, he was again nominated in January 1998 because of his work in bringing North and South Korea together in the WTCA movement and for his many years of promoting peace through trade. In 1999, 2000 and 2001, he was again nominated by the South Korean Government and accepted by the Nobel Institute as a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize.

On behalf of WTC Doha-Qatar, I wish Mr.Tozzoli luck and hope he would continue to provide the leadership necessary for the WTCA to fulfills its role as one of the world's premier international organisations.

P.A.M Sherif Acting General Manager World Trade Center. Doha - Qatar