Businesspeople and authorities in 13 Mekong Delta cities and provinces shared opportunities and obstacles arising from the global integration at a conference in Can Tho city on August 21.

Speaking at the event, Deputy Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son urged them to update knowledge and information to make them highly competitive, both at home and abroad.

The conference was a platform for participants to suggest ideas for the sake of sustainable development, he said.

Businesses need to advance professionally between now and 2015, from human resources to management, said Director of the Centre for Economics and Policy Research under the National Economics University Nguyen Duc Thanh.

Under the auspices of the Hanns Seidel Foundation of Germany, the event will run until August 22.-VNA