Chairperson of the UNDP-Sida Trade and SDGs Working Group for Arab States
Rima Younes El-Khatib is the Deputy Director and Head of International Relations Division at the Foreign Affairs Department for Lebanon’s Central Bank. In 2017, she was elected as chairperson of the UNDP-Sida Trade and Sustainable Development Working Group (WG) for Arab countries.
She is also the Trade in Services Coordinator and Chief Negotiator for Services for multilateral, regional and bilateral services negotiations. From 2006-2012 she was seconded to the Ministry of Economy and Trade to lead the trade in services negotiations.
Beside trade negotiations, Rima’s work focuses on issues related to Behavioral Economics, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), gender equality, the knowledge economy and FinTech, economic development, financial health and inclusion and access to finance for SMEs.
Rima holds a Master’s degree in Financial Economics and a BSc in Business from the American University of Beirut.
