ICC will celebrate its 90th anniversary tonight at a formal dinner hosted by French Economy, Industry and Employment Minister Christine Lagarde and attended by more than 120 business leaders.

Madame Lagarde will be the keynote speaker at the dinner, which will be held at the Ministry on the banks of the Seine River. Angel Gurría, Secretary-General of the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development, Victor K. Fung, Chairman of the International Chamber of Commerce, and Gérard Worms, Chairman of ICC France, will also address the gathering

Founded in 1919, ICC promotes trade and investment across frontiers and helps business corporations face the   challenges and seize the opportunities of globalization . Its conviction that trade is a powerful force for peace and prosperity remains as valid today as it was 90 years ago.

At a time of deep worldwide recession, ICC continues to stress the importance of the multilateral trading system and the dangers of the current rise in protectionism. It has also worked actively in recent months to help find a solution to the collapse of trade finance.

ICC was the first international organization to establish its headquarters in Paris. It has been based in the French capital ever since, except for a brief period when it transferred its operations to neutral Sweden following the outbreak of World War II in 1939. ICC’s first Chairman was Etienne Clémentel, who had previously served as the French Minister of Commerce and Industry and left ICC in 1923 to become the French Minister of Finance.

The dinner, which has been organized by ICC France, will pay a special tribute to former ICC Chairmen, nine of whom will be in attendance. It is part of a series of anniversary events around the world that began in Geneva last month and will continue in Kuala Lumpur, New York, Boston, and New Delhi, until the end of the year.

At the event in Geneva, ICC launched the ICC Research Foundation (ICCRF), which has been established to reinforce ICC’s role of providing global intellectual leadership on public policy issues of major concern to business and peoples in all parts of the world. It will commission research to demonstrate the public benefits that flow from an expansion of international trade and investment.

Since its founding, ICC has expanded to become a world business organization with hundreds of thousands of member companies and associations in some 130 countries. Members include many of the world's most influential companies and represent every major sector.

To view Mr Fung's speech, please  click here 

To view Mr Gurría's speech, please  click here