At the invitation of the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC), General Director of the World Trade Pascal Lamy has come to Vietnam. On this occasion, he has a thirty minute talk with the Vietnamese businessmen at a luncheon at Melia on November 15. Vietnam Business Forum introduced the content of the speech.
Why is the Doha round so difficult?
Last July, after consulting with WTO member governments, Mr Pascal Lamy proposed to suspend the negotiations temporarily to give participants a “time-out” to reflect and adjust their positions.
He questions: “Why can agriculture, which represents less than 8% of the world trade, keep the entire Doha Round agenda off track?” and then answer that it is simple because food production remains a very sensitive sector for both rich and poor countries
To his mind, since the current Round is a development one and since more than 70% of the world poor live in rural areas, there is no way the negotiations can succeed if the existing agriculture bias against developing countries is not properly addressed.
For this negotiation to succeed each one of the major players in this round must take a decisive step forward. When they do, the must bring with them the extra flexibility in their negotiating positions so that we can close the gap on the very substantial trade agreement.
Mr Pascal Lamy says that more than 20 contents have been negotiated at Doha round of those five ones having important affluence on activity of APEC have been stated by him.
How can the APEC business community help conclude the Doha Round?
In his speech Mr Pascal Lamy says that, the Asia Pacific region has become the most vibrant region on this plant with a population of 2.6 billion people, accounting for 60 per cent of world GDP and 50 per cent of world trade. APEC economies do have a big stake in the success of the Doha round.
He has three hopes for the APEC business community: First, lobby your respective governments and push for a successful conclusion of the Doha round. As his explanation, Business community will be a huge beneficiary of a successful outcome of the round. So, businessmen have the responsibility to push your government and negotiators to show a more visible political engagement and to put greater flexibilities on the negotiation table.
Second, help us explain the benefits of the round to those who are not familiar with what this round is all about. Your advocacy would be crucial in raising the public awareness and support for trade opening on a global scale. We need to do that at a time when globalisation impacts rapidly on our economic and social fabrics, creating sometimes legitimate anxieties in public opinion.
Third, engage in the negotiations as much as you can, tell your negotiators about the difficulties, trade barriers and unfair treatment you have encountered in doing business. This world is changing rapidly; the way of doing trade is changing as well. Your advice or suggestions will be valuable to us on the direction of future rules making.
APEC 2006 has a good theme: “Towards a Dynamic Community for sustainable Development and Prosperity". I hope APEC business community could play a leading role in ensuring a transparent and predicable global business environment, building bridges over differences and advancing freer trade.
He takes the opportunities to thank the ABAC’s continuous support to work, calling for the early resumption and successful conclusion of the Doha round negotiations.
Ending his speech, Mr Pascal Lamy once again affirms the support of business community to WTO on Doha round and look forward to working closely to achieve shred objective.
ABAC Steps up Trade and Investment Liberalisation
The 4th ABAC Meeting took place in Hanoi under the framework of the APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting Week. At the meeting, Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet addressed the importance of ABAC on the development of APEC, on the promotion of trade and investment facilitation and liberation and on the enhancement of the regional economic cooperation toward the goal of “Towards a Dynamic Community for Sustainable Development and Prosperity.”
“Holding nearly 50 per cent of trade value, 60 per cent of GDP and some 40 per cent of population of the world, APEC has become the most active economy in the world. This proves [that] trade and investment facilitation and liberalisation are the driving force to boost the development and prosperity for the entire APEC community and individual economies.”
However, President Triet noted, the APEC region is also encountering with many challenges such as development gap, fierce competition, price volatility, continual natural disasters and protectionism appearance, which hinder the circulation of capital source, service, technology and labour. This requires APEC economies to further tighten cooperation in key areas such as business environment improvement, rational exploitation and use of fossil fuels, and new technology research and transfer encouragement among others.
Mr Hoang Van Dung, First Vice Chairman of VCCI and Chairman of ABAC, said: ABAC has submitted nine-point recommendations to APEC economic leaders. Particularly, the top priority of ABAC is to appeal to APEC leaders for their pioneer in putting forth initiatives to resume the Doha Round and progress to resolve disputes; and to concentrate efforts on negotiations and consolidate agreement points in agriculture, service and tariff in order to conclude the Round soon. ABAC also recommends the promotion of trade liberalisation, private sector development, financial system strengthening, technological innovation promotion and cooperative relationship with APEC.
Among the above subjects, the trade and finance liberalisation is the top concern of ABAC 2006. ABAC members have spent much time on seeking effective solutions to the resumption of the Doha Round. According to several ABAC members, ABAC’s recommendations to APEC leaders help introduce best solutions for the common development of the region.
Vietnam Puts forth Many Initiatives to Help Businesses
As many as 96 per cent of Vietnamese companies are SMEs. After the WTO admission, Vietnam will have many opportunities but also expose to numerous challenges. SMEs lack capital, technology and knowledge about market and international trade experience.
As the host of the ABAC, ABAC Vietnam members proposed several projects and ideas for the cooperation to assist Vietnamese businesses. Specifically, ABAC Vietnam put forth initiatives of assisting SMEs to approach capital sources and markets; and promoting the development of credit ratings profession to facilitate local enterprises to approach capital sources and markets in the region.
Another important initiative of ABAC is to increase regional business link through digital technology (APEC business network construction). At the same time, ABAC Vietnam members also emphasised the strengthening of cooperation between SMEs with trans-national corporations (TNCs). The Vietnam’s chairmanship of ABAC is a good opportunity for Vietnamese businesses to expand cooperation and international integration.
The APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) was founded in November 1995 with the goals of giving consultancies about regional business activities to APEC economics leaders. For more than a decade, the role of ABAC is increasingly heightened. All APEC meetings have the attendance of ABAC.
The APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) was founded in November 1995 with the goals of giving consultancies about regional business activities to APEC economics leaders. For more than a decade, the role of ABAC is increasingly heightened. All APEC meetings have the attendance of ABAC.
A lot of recommendations of ABAC have been brought into life, such as APEC business travel cards (Vietnam took part in since September 2005); 5 per cent transactional cost reduction, corruption relief and others.
Thu Huyen
Vietnamese
