Foreign business leaders back 2005 WTO entry

Vietnam Investment Review, August, 2003

VIETNAM'S accession to the WTO has received the backing of a number of high-profile business leaders.

The seminar, 'Moving Towards WTO Membership--Vietnam's Accession to the World Trade Organisation: Strategies for Negotiations and the Implementation Process' was sponsored by New York Life International and hosted by the Ministry of Trade in cooperation with the US-Vietnam Trade Council.

A senior director of law firm White and Case's Geneva Office and former acting director general of the WTO, David Hartridge, said: "Accession to the WTO is the only way to defend Vietnam's interests in international trade.

"The liberalisation of the services sector is certainly the fastest way to upgrade Vietnam's economy as a whole," he said.

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