The International Chamber of Commerce, Ghana (ICC), will on July 2, hold a CEO’s breakfast meeting in Accra, to mark the centenary celebration of ICC worldwide.
Founded in 1919, the ICC governed international trade, investment, finance or commercial relations and promoted peace and prosperity globally in the aftermath of the First World War.
In a press statement issued in Accra yesterday, it said the main goal of the ICC was to build stronger commercial relations between nations and reduce the risk of war and armed conflict.
With members in more than 100 countries, the ICC currently represents 45 million companies and more than 1 billion workers worldwide.
In addition to that, the ICC is the only private sector organisation to hold United Nations Permanent Observer status.
The statement noted that the breakfast meeting would be on the theme: ‘Creating an enabling environment for business to work for everyone, everyday and everywhere in Ghana’ with Mohammed Awal, Minister for Business Development, scheduled as the guest speaker.
A former Supreme Court Judge and the Chairman of the Drafting Committee of Experts of the Company’s Act 2019, His Lordship, Justice Date-Bah would also present a review of the new Company’s Act and its implications for businesses in the country at the meeting.
The meeting is also to launch its activities for the year including an Africa Conference on International Arbitration, Africa Digital Trade Forum, stakeholder workshop on coping strategies for SME’s to Climate Change and a year-long advocacy campaign on trade facilitation and how to combat piracy, counterfeit and illicit trade.
In 2016, the statement said ICC Ghana organised the first International Commercial Arbitration training in Ghana under the auspices of the ICC International Court of Arbitration, and advocated the ratification of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Trade Facilitation Agreement in collaboration with other partners in 2017.
It said the ICC’s renewed mission to “make business work for everyone, every day, everywhere”, was now aligned with its purpose in the context of the global challenges and opportunities of the 21st century.
The Global Alliance for Trade Facilitation, which is jointly led by ICC, the statement said, was redefining the way trade facilitation reforms were implemented, by working with governments and businesses from the ground up to tackle trade barriers with a business mind-set.
Among its achievements, it stated, was the bringing together of private sector experts with governments in 1927 to develop a global pact on lowering tariff barriers, which was eventually adopted by governments as the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, precursor to the WTO.
In the 1950s, ICC prepared the first draft of the New York Convention, the United Nations (UN) agreement that founded international arbitration as well as helped broker the world’s first comprehensive climate accord, the Paris Agreement in 2015.
BY TIMES REPORTER
