In his speech, Trade Minister Truong Dinh Tuyen said over the past 60 years, the trade sector has gained important achievements in many fields such as distributing goods, promoting exports, building infrastructure, renovating trade operation and actively integrating into the world economy.

Speaking at the ceremony, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung praised efforts of the trade sector and stressed that the sector should accelerate economic growth rate, improve the effectiveness and sustainability of development, lift the country out of the underdeveloped nation status and basically become an industrialized country by 2020.

To achieve the target, the Prime Minister asked the trade sector to move strongly towards modernization and cooperation with other economic sectors and operate in a competitive environment under the macro regulation of the State. The sector should boost exports, create jobs and shift economic structure in order to achieve an export target of 18 percent in the 2006-2010 period, he said.