The fifth Asia-Pacific Trade Facilitation Forum was opened in Beijing on September 10, with a theme of “strengthen cooperation between governments and enterprises, advance the establishment of an international supply chain with more effectiveness and inclusiveness”. Jiang Zengwei, Vice Minister of Commerce, said at inauguration.

Jiang Zengwei said that, supply chain management is a trade format of modern business, and a product of the continually refined international division and the developing management information technology. Currently, all the countries have developedsupply chain management models with their own characteristics, which play great roles in internationalized production and domestic and foreign trade. The Ministry of Commerce of PRC has made it an important work to develop a batch of supply chain management enterprises with core competition advantage. It concerns to many fields, such as trade in goods, trade in service, circulation system, informationization, e-commerce and “going out”, and has a crucial role in transformation of development pattern and long-term development of business.

Jiang Zengwei pointed out that, the global supply chain management of China’s enterprises is still in early stages, but shows a good development momentum. For a long time, government of China has always been striving to promote trade facilitation. In July this year, General Office of the State Council issued the Several Opinions on Promoting Steady Development and Structure Adjustment of Import and Export, pointing out that trade facilitation reform of “customs by a single customs declaration and a single customs inspection” should be formulated as soon as possible, and facilitation measures, such as territorial declaration and port clearance, should be continuously carried out. Currently, cross-border e-commerce develops rapidly all over the world, which asks for reforming traditional foreign trade management, and establishing a trade framework and mechanism with more facilitation. In August, China’s government issued Opinions on Implementing Policies to Support Retail and Export in Cross-Border E-commerce, putting forward a series of specific measures on customs supervision, inspection and quarantine, tax rebate and settlement of exchange. These policies are China’s new exploration on trade facilitation, with the continuous development of information technology.

At the meeting, Edy, Vice Minister of Economic Affairs of Indonesia, Sajjad, Assistant Minister of Commerce of Pakistan, Sambuu, Member of Parliament and Chairman of Business Association of Mongolia, Dr. Ravi, Director of Trade and Investment Department of U.N. ESCAP, and leaders of Asian Development Bank and International Federation of Freight Forwarders Associations attended the forum and made speeches.