Being one of the main engines of the economic development, China’s foreign trade has gained unprecedented achievements. In recent years, however, under the influence of international financial crisis, there come challenges of the slower growth of world economy, sluggish demand, trade protectionism, frequent international trade friction, unstable exchange rate, and fluctuated commodity price. While domestically the operating cost of domestic enterprise increases, industrial restructuring encounters difficulties, and competition intensifies, the efficiency of Customs clearance and logistics needs to be improved urgently.For these reasons, trade facilitation has been the important issue and positive action concerned among international organizations, national governments and business sectors.
Responding to the crisis and the rapidly changing environment, howshould we take comprehensive trade facilitation measures to promote the sustainable development of China’s foreign trade? How should we interpret the national foreign trade policy and then executethe measures? How should the relevant government administrations develop the management level and capacity tointroduce measures for trade facilitation as soon as possible? How should we build a win-win partnership between the public and private sectors? These problems have to be studied and solved urgently in the foreign trade field.
Consequently, China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT) and China Association of Port-of –Entry (CAOP) decide to hold China International Trade Facilitation Forum ceremoniously in Beijing on November 8-9, 2012. It will be themost comprehensive annual event with the highest specification, the largest scale and themost far-reaching influence in the field of China’s international trade facilitation.
The theme of the forum is Trade Facilitation, New Engine for International Trade & Economy Recovery. It will focus on this theme and discuss the six following aspects: theWTO international trade facilitation negotiations and progress; the efforts of the promotion for trade facilitation and services to economy entities making by the relevant government departments (including Ministry of Commerce; Ministry of Transportation; State Administration of Taxation; State Administration of Foreign Exchange; General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine; General Administration of Customs) and their specific and latest instruments and measures;the promotion of sustainable development of foreign trade through eliminating trade barriers; the profits of the foreign trade and economic enterprises during the reform of trade facilitation around the world; the establishment ofbusiness and publicconstructive partnership to promote the process of trade facilitation; the positive roles of service providers in trade facilitation process.
Manyfamous leaders, experts and professionals in the international trade will be invited to the forum and give speeches, including leaders of vice ministersand above in the relevant government departments, leaders of famous institutes (such as Sun Zhenyu, Long Yongtu, etc.), presidents of the global top 500 enterprises,CEOs of well-known international consulting firms based in China, and scholars at home and abroad. Besides 3 congratulatory speeches, the forum will set up 4forum keynote speeches and 12 forum speeches, containing press conference, keynote speech, forum speech, questions & answers, and award ceremony. In addition, the award ceremony for Outstanding Contribution Award of China International Trade Facilitation will be held at the same time. And there will be about four hundred people attending the forum, includingcorporate management, senior government officials, professionals, senior experts, media membersand educators.
Hereby, we sincerely invite officials of the relevant government departments, corporate management, professionals, practitioners and researchers in the foreign trade circle, and educators to participate in this forum, to exchange experiences and share successful practices, thus we can work together to promote international trade facilitation process, and push forward the sustainable development of China’s foreign trade.