WHAT and WHERE:  The Executive Forum provides a venue for senior public sector decision-makers and business leaders to debate "best practice" in national export strategy design and management.  The debate, which is organized under a partnership between ITC and the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (seco) of Switzerland, is held every September in Montreux, Switzerland.

WHY:  The premise of the Executive Forum is "sustained improvement in export performance relies on the existence of a realistic national export strategy and the capability to manage it".   The annual debate endeavours to generate new ideas and solutions and to strengthen the public-private sector partnership in the strategy management process. 

FOLLOW-UP:  A summary of each annual debate is published and is available on this website which is also designed to provide a source of reference on "model practice" in export strategy development and to support on-going dialogue and networking among Executive Forum network members.

Regional Executive Forums are organized to disseminate conclusions and recommendations emanating from the Montreux consultations and to promote implementation of these recommendations at the national level under a public-private sector partnership.

Executive Forum 2002 focused debate on the theme "Managing Competitive Advantage".

Executive Forum 2001 centred discussion on the question "Is Your Trade Support Network Working?".

Executive Forum 2000 dealt with "Export Development and the Digital Economy".