Vietnamese Ambassador Le Thi Tuyet Mai speaks at the 57th session of the International Trade Centre’s Joint Advisory Group on July 20. (Photo: VNA)Geneva – A Vietnamese diplomat has
highlighted the country’s wish to enhance cooperation with the Geneva-based International
Trade Centre (ITC) while addressing the recent 57th session of the
ITC’s Joint Advisory Group.
In her remarks, Ambassador Le Thi Tuyet Mai, Permanent
Representative of Vietnam to the United Nations, the World Trade
Organisation (WTO) and other international organisations in Geneva, highly
valued the ITC’s assistance for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs)
over the past years, especially for their digital transformation, green
transition and access to foreign markets, along with its trade facilitation.
Vietnam hopes to strengthen ties with the ITC in the time
ahead on the basis of its trade and development achievements obtained during
the transformation from an underdeveloped country into a lower-middle-income
one, she went on.
The country is working hard to implement the climate change
response strategy and shift to a circular economy, she said, noting that green
growth is not only an inevitable choice but also an opportunity for Vietnam to
keep up with the global development trend and reach the target of net zero
emissions by 2050.
Therefore, Vietnam and some other countries’ participation in
the new ITC project of “Climate competitiveness: Building opportunities in the green economy for emerging and developing countries”,
funded by the European Union for 2023 – 2026, will create favourable conditions
for them to capitalise on assistance during the adjustment of policies and
trade practices in adaptation to climate change, and discuss trade and
environmental issues at WTO to boost trade and sustainable development.
As an active ITC member since 2007,
Vietnam sincerely appreciates contributions by the ITC and other sponsors to the
technical support and capacity building projects for its MSMEs, Mai noted, applauding
the development of the Vietnam – ITC partnership as seen in some pilot projects
of the centre.
The hybrid 57th session of the ITC’s Joint
Advisory Group reviewed the centre’s performance in 2022 and gave
recommendations for its activities in the time ahead.
ITC Executive Director Pamela Coke-Hamilton said the centre
disbursed more than 150 million USD for projects in 130 countries last year,
the highest-ever sum. ITC-funded projects helped over 27,000 small businesses,
including 10,000 women-led ones, improve their competitiveness.
Ambassador Le Thi Tuyet Mai (third from right) and ITC Executive Director Pamela Coke-Hamilton at a meeting on July 14 (Photo: VNA)At a meeting with Ambassador Mai prior to the session, Coke-Hamilton
described Vietnam as an excellent partner of the ITC during the implementation
of this centre’s projects in Southeast Asia.
The country is accessing some ITC-financed programmes and
projects to improve export competitiveness and trade promotion capacity of
MSMEs. In Vietnam, the centre is running nine projects, the biggest among ASEAN
members./.
