The roundtable conference of the year’s CIFIT has been officially renamed “the Roundtable of Leaders of World Chambers of Commerce, scheduled for September 7 and 8. The renaming is the second one following last year’s to reflect the change of the focus of the conference. It’s a good indication of the constant evolution and expansion of the roundtable since its inauguration in 2002.

The first roundtable in 2002 was named “the Roundtable on the Cooperation of International Goodwill Chambers of Commerce”. After seven editions, the Trade Promotion Council found that participants not only included chambers of commerce, and that there were more and more economic organizations and institutions taking part in the roundtable. Therefore, on the eve of the eighth edition, the roundtable was changed to the name “Roundtable on International Chamber of Commerce”. This year, with the approval of national authorities, the name has again been changed to “Roundtable of Leaders of World Chambers of Commerce” to reflect the upgraded status and expanding influence of the roundtable. In fact, almost all participants at the roundtable last year were leaders of national and international chambers of commerce, such as Zhang Wei, Vice President of the China International Trade Promotion Council; Alessandro Teixeira, President of the World Association of Investment Promotion Agencies; and John Prescott, former Deputy Prime Minister of Britain. Thus, the new name of the roundtable will better reflect its reality.

So far, leaders of national chambers of commerce in many developed nations such as Britain and France, as well as many developing nations such as Cuba, have stated their intent to participate in the year’s roundtable, which will be focused on “low-carbon economics”. Many leading experts and scholars on climate, energy and the environment are also expected to take part in the roundtable. They will explore “low-carbon economics” with leaders of chambers of commerce from across the world.