APEC to create business momentum

The APEC Business Forum will take place on the sidelines of 2011 APEC Summit in Hawaii from November 11-12, 2011. Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) deputy chairman Hoang Van Dung tells VIR what we can expect.

Is the Vietnamese business group ready to leave for the event?

At this point of time, around 60 businesses will join the Vietnamese president heading the event. There Vietnamese firms will have a chance to meet 1,500 leading groups coming from 21 APEC economies. Our firms have made certain preparations based on earlier given subjects.

What are Vietnamese firms’ further activities during the trip besides partaking in major events?

At the invitation of the Pacific Basin Economic Council (PBEC), East-West Centre (EWC) and APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) in the US, the Vietnamese business mission will survey the US market from November 9-18. Our firms will participate in theme-based meetings and workshops and innovative exhibitions catered to regional business community in Honolulu.
Besides, the group will call on some principal cities belonging to New York and California to uncover actual business practices and local consumer tastes.

On November 12, President Truong Tan Sang and 15 top business players such as PetroVietnam, Viettel, Tan Tao Group and Sovico Holdings will have interactions with 12 leading US groups.

Besides, the Vietnam-US Business Forum, slated to take place on the same day by VCCI, will highlight promoting cooperation between both countries’ businesses in training area with a view to ameliorating Vietnamese firms’ corporate governance capacity in the coming period.

Vietnam has joined APEC for around 13 years, however the gap in development between local and APEC businesses was yet to be shortened. Why that is?

APEC’s basic principle is to facilitate trade liberation and investment through a cooperative forum platform. Besides, the business community benefits from diverse cooperative training and capacity building programmes to enhance management, contract negotiation and import-export business skills.

Each year, APEC sets aside a budget to fund enterprise supportive projects based on each member’s initiative. Therefore, support is not only economically beneficial but it also helps local firms grip world’s latest development trend as well as that trend’s advantages and disadvantages.

Vietnam has been an APEC member for over 13 years and 96 per cent of Vietnamese small- and medium-sized firms have indirectly benefited from tariff barrier removal. However, when APEC turns into a free trade area proposed in 2020, these benefits will also entail multiple challenges unless firms are well prepared in diverse aspects like human resources management, finance, technology and foreign language skills. – VIR

Tags: APEC