Executive Forum 2003: encouraging business advocacy.

The next ITC/seco Executive Forum will take place in Cancun, Mexico on the eve of the WTO Ministerial Conference, and will include Bancomext among the co-hosts.

Five years ago, ITC launched the Executive Forum series to help developing and transition economies build national strategies to improve trade competitiveness. From the start, each Executive Forum emphasized that government strategy-makers need to work closely with the business sector to develop trade.

The WTO Ministerial Conference in Cancun, Mexico is the most important trade development issue facing national trade development strategy-makers this year. In light of the importance of this event, ITC's next global Executive Forum event will take place in Cancun, on the eve of the Ministerial Conference.

The event, co-sponsored by ITC, the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (seco) and Bancomext, will include a focus on business advocacy for WTO issues -- that is, encouraging a dialogue between the public and private sector in developing countries, in order to shape sound national negotiating positions.

Business for Cancun

This year's Executive Forum debate builds on ITC's "Business for Cancun" initiative, in which ITC and trade development partners are organizing meetings in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe before the WTO Ministerial Conference.

Business for Cancun identifies priority business concerns, voices the perspective of different business communities and helps countries integrate the business sector's views in government negotiating positions. Senior business and government representatives have been meeting regionally to tackle how business can contribute to national negotiating positions for the upcoming WTO Ministerial Conference in Cancun in September. The meetings are helping business leaders in Asia, Africa, Latin America and Eastern Europe to better understand their governments' preparations for the Cancun meeting, and to develop a process for business to play its part in trade negotiations.

Business advocacy still new

Business advocacy, while essential to give negotiators a fuller picture of what is in a country's best interest, is still relatively new in many developing countries. Preparations for the Cancun Conference are an opportunity for the business sector and government to get together to discuss major issues that are on the negotiating table from a business perspective.

Regional approach

Regional meetings are tailored to specific...