The International Economic Integration Forum will debut on Thursday to discuss the theme “Creating favourable trade conditions and increasing enterprises’ competitive ability.”— Photo sohuutritue.net.vn

HCM CITY — The International Economic Integration Forum will debut on Thursday to discuss the theme “Creating favourable trade conditions and increasing enterprises’ competitive ability.”

It will provide a forum for State officials, experts and business executives to exchange ideas on the prospects of free trade agreements, renovation of institutions to create favourable trading conditions in Việt Nam and ways to improve the business environment in HCM City and Việt Nam.

The forum is expected to provide information to city enterprises, increase their market access capability and promote the process of creating favourable trading conditions for them.

It is expected to attract 300 delegates, including city leaders, officials from ministries and departments, international organisations, business groups, universities, research institutions, and the media from HCM City and neighbouring provinces.

Its organisers, the HCM City Institute for Development Studies, HCM City International Integration Support Centre and the Central Institute for Economic Management plan to make it an annual event.

International economic integration and implementation of free trade deals have reduced export tariffs for Việt Nam but the competitiveness of the country, its enterprises or products do not depend only on taxes but also administrative reform and reduction of import-export costs.

According to the World Economic Forum,the benefits of improved global trade facilitation far exceed those available from further tariff reduction. Estimates suggest that an ambitious improvement in two key components of supply chain barriers, border administration and transport and communications infrastructure, with all countries raising their performance halfway to global best practice, would lead to an increase of approximately US$ 2.6 trillion (4.7%) in global GDP and US$ 1.6 trillion (14.5%) in global exports.

Though the Government has for years made great efforts to create and sustain a favourable environment for trade, conditions still do not meet international integration needs.

HCM City, as the nation’s economic hub, realises that improving the business environment and competitiveness to foster international integration is one of the most important tasks in promoting exports and joining the global supply chain. — VNS