The APEC Public – Private Dialogue with SMEs on promoting legal trade in harvested wood products and strengthening supply chain connectivity towards sustainable growth

On 18 – 19 February 2017, the APEC Public – Private Dialogue with SMEs on promoting legal trade in harvested wood products and strengthening supply chain connectivity towards sustainable growth, co-sponsored by China, Chinese Taipei, New Zealand, Russia was held in Nha Trang city, Khanh Hoa, Viet Nam. The Dialoague is held in the margin of the 11^th Experts Group on Illegal Logging and Associated Trade (EGILAT) with a view to strengthening APEC cooperation in enhancing SMEs on promoting legal trade in harvested wood products and strengthening supply chain connectivity and providing a discussion platform for member economies and relevant regional and international organizations

The Dialogue with the leading of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and representatives from APEC 17 member economies, representatives of related ministries, agencies, academia and NGOs, regional, SMEs and international organizations such as the TNC, WWF, HAWA, RECOFTC, MTIB, RAFT, FAO… has focused on five sessions and discussed the key issues on Enhancing the use of innovative science and technology: Experience Sharing and Best Practice; Public – Private partnership to improve capabilities and enhancing the engagement of SMEs; Model and support mechanisms to increase cooperation among economies to promote legal trade in harvested wood products and strengthening supply chain connectivity; Enhancing SMES to implement timber legality and supply chain connectivity framework and we have addressed the key solutions.

The success of this Dialogue is the results of the active contributions and guidance to identify priority actions to foster trade in legally harvested wood products, and also advance conservation and rehabilitation of forest resources in conjunction with sustainable economic growth as well as to identify priority actions to mainstream and scale-up PPP model in order to promote the trade liberalization towards sustainable growth for Asia and the Pacific region.