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

Addressing the recent 57th session of the ITC’s Joint Advisory Group, Mai 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, as cited by VietnamPlus.

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.

Ambassador Le Thi Tuyet Mai (third from right) and ITC Executive Director Pamela Coke-Hamilton at a meeting on July 14. Photo: VNA

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.

An overview of the 57th session of the Joint Advisory Group of the International Trade Centre in Geneva. Photo: International Trade Centre

ITC Executive Director Pamela Coke-Hamilton said the centre disbursed more than $150 million for projects in 130 countries last year, the highest-ever sum. ITC-funded projects helped over 27,000 small businesses improve their competitiveness, including 10,000 women-led ones.

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.

Currently Vietnam is implementing a number of ITC-supported programmes and services to enhance the export competitiveness and trade promotion of small and medium-sized enterprises, including the SheTrades Initiative, the Trade for Sustainable Development (T4SD) project, and Green2Compete project, VOV said.

The ITC is operating nine projects in Vietnam, the most among ASEAN member countries./.

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