ICPE organized the 2nd International two-day Conference on Economic Diplomacy and Internationalisation

On Monday and Tuesday, 17-18 June 2013, International Center for Promotion of Enterprises organized the 2^nd International two-day Conference on Economic Diplomacy and Internationalisation, together with Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Slovenia as co-organisers and in partnership with Ministry of Economic Development and Technology of the Republic of Slovenia as well as the Slovenian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, where the event took place. After the welcome address by the ICPE Acting Director General Mr Janez Podobnik, the keynote address was given by HE Mr Karl Erjavec, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Slovenia. Keynote addresses on the second day of the conference were extended by Mr OP Rawat, ICPE Council President and Mr Samo Hribar Milič, President of the Slovenian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Keynote address: HE Mr Karl Erjavec, Minister of Foreign Affairs (Foto:STA)

The first day of the conference was focused primarily on the presentation of models of successful economic diplomacy, while the topic of the second day was based on the internationalisation policies of national economies and also on the good practice cases of how to do business with priority markets.

Speakers and panelists at the conference were renowned experts on economic diplomacy, ranging from Ambassadors, Economic diplomats/counsellors, Honorary Consuls, representatives of International Organizations such as UNIDO and UNCTAD, prof.dr. Ljubiša Adamović from ECPD Postgraduate School, Belgrade, representative of the Ministry of Economic Development and Technology as well as entrepreneurs from successful companies from Slovenia and abroad.

The two-day Conference was attended by approximately 170 participants from more than 30 countries including India, Albania, Namibia, Austria, China, the Netherlands, Brazil, Sri Lanka, Turkey, Kuwait, France, Germany, Venezuela, Columbia, Croatia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cyprus, Iran, Japan, Macedonia, Montenegro, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Republic, Spain, the United Kingdom, and Slovenia.

The conference was concluded by ICPE ADG Mr Podobnik, who closed the very successful conference with a speech that assessed the intent and contents of the conference, emphasized the follow up activities, which also include ICPE’s preparedness to cooperate in educating young diplomats on the field of economic diplomacy and announced that the Third International Conference on Economic diplomacy will be organized in due time and possibly held in some other ICPE Member State.

One of the first follow up activities to the conference will be the preparation of proceedings, compiled of powerpoint presentations from the conference, scientific texts and academic elaborates under the guidance of the editor of the Journal, Ambassador Zvone Dragan. The proceedings will be available in hard copy and online, in order to inform, promote and educate the business and political sphere on the topic of economic diplomacy and internationalisation.