Co-Chair and ExCo members attended the 6th GMS Business Summit

On the 30th March 2018 in Hanoi, EuroCham Co-Chairman Mr. Denis Brunetti attended the GMS Business Summit 2018, having met MOIT Vice-Minister Tran Quoc Khanh, to whom he addressed the Chamber's thanks for his kind participation in the recent EuroCham Whitebook Launch last March. Mr. Brunetti took the opportunity to introduce himself and the new leadership of EuroCham, including ExCo member Mr. Nguyen Hai Minh.

Mr. Jean Jacques Bouflet, Vice Chairman (Second from the right)

In a separate session, Vice Chairman Mr. Jean Jacques Bouflet represented EuroCham at a business luncheon and participated in the panel Session 3 on Trade and GMS and Global Trade, having shared the views of the European business community on the EVFTA and other issues. Mr. Bouflet emphasized that global integration and free trade agreements are a  trend in the world economy. He also expressed his recommendation that ASEAN members countries should become more active and engage with European partners in this direction.

In parallel, Mr. Brian Hull, CEO of ABB, EuroCham members also participated in the Panel discussion of Session 01 on Infrastructure Development and Financing.

Mr. Roman Kuebler, EuroCham Vice Chairman and Mr. Soren Roed Pedersen, EuroCham Executive Board Member

The event's plenary session was dedicated to the topic "In search for new drivers of economic growth." The distiguished participants included Vietnamese Prime Minister Mr. Nguyen Xuan Phuc, Cambodian Prime Minister Mr. Hun Sen, and Lao PRD Prime Minister Mr. Thongloun Sisoulith, as well as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of China, Mr. Xing Yi. EuroCham was represented by EuroCham Vice Chairman Mr. Roman Kuebler, EuroCham and ExCo member Mr. Soren Roed Pedersen. In this session, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc mentioned the Action Plan of GMS 2018-2020 vision 2030, highlighting on three points: 
(i) improving competitiveness
(ii) assist GMS countries to participate more effectively in the global value chain
iii) strengthen coordination in addressing common challenges of the region, especially climate change, environmental protection.

Regarding to Vietnam focuses in the upcoming time, PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc emphasized on the Government effort in the progress of administrative  procedure reform to improve the business environment and attract more foreign investment. Especially, among four priorities of Vietnamese Government, PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc highlighted the importance of continuing to actively promote international integration with the GMS and CLV regions, while defining the focus in 2018-2019 was signing and ratification of two new free trade agreements CPTPP and the Vietnam-EU Free Trade Agreement.

The EuroCham ExCo was well represented in different sessions of this event.