The Global Trade Development Week opened today with the participation of 100 representatives of international development and economic entities from all over the world and around 1000 delegates of international customs authorities.

Opened by Sultan bin Saeed Al Mansouri, Minister of Economy, the annual event links together trade donors, multilaterals, governments and private sector heads of trade through direct dialogue, content, networking, workshops and exhibitions of leading trade technologies, services and solutions to enhance public-private trade development across borders.

Themed, "Navigating Global Trade & Reviving Global Growth - Implementing TFA and enhancing capacity across the public & private sector", the 2017 edition of the global event addresses the means of building business facilitation and trade capacity between the public and private sector.

Delivering the event's inaugural speech, Al Mansouri said the GTDW, hosted by the UAE for the fourth time running, has become among the major events that are effectively contributing to mustering efforts made by world governments, private sector institutions and global organisations concerned to develop trade policies and streamline administrative and customs procedures with the ultimate goal of ensuring a trade and investment-conducive environment in the world.

The conference convenes at a time global trade is playing an increasingly significant role as a robust enabler for economic growth that is effectively contributing to boosting productivity, generating job opportunities, encouraging investments and reducing poverty rates, the minister added.

He underlined the importance of conducting an in-depth scrutiny of world economic indices that impact world trade, noting that the total value of commodity exports during the period from 2006 through 2016 surged by 12 percent to US$16 trillion, while service exports significantly rose by 64 percent during the same period to $4.8 trillion.

However and despite the positive impression these figure suggest, commodity trade last year recorded a nine-year- low of 1.3 percent, a fact which has adversely affected the gross world product. Nevertheless this year's data suggest relatively positive results, with the volume of global trade expected to hit 2.4 percent by the end of the year, the minister said.

Such indicators generate a mix of opportunities and challenges and corroborate the need for sustaining channels of collaboration and coordination to stamp out obstacles impeding global trade and strengthening developing nations' share which stand at 41 percent of world commodity trade and 36 percent of global service trade.