Leaders from 21 member economies of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) issued the Da Nang Declaration as they ended their meeting chaired by President Tran Dai Quang in the central city on November 11.

Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang

The Da Nang Declaration Creating New Dynamism, Fostering a Shared Future reaffirms leaders’ long-standing commitment to APEC’s mission of supporting sustainable economic growth and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific.

With high consensus reached among APEC leaders, the 2017 APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting adopted the document, creating new dynamism for a shared future, President Tran Dai Quang told local and foreign media in a follow-up press conference on the same day.

“This is the most important outcome of the summit as well as the APEC Year 2017,” he emphasised.

Recognising the significant challenges the region’s economies face, their leaders pledge to work together and take the following actions: promote innovative growth, inclusion and sustainable employment; create new drivers for regional economic integration, strengthen the capacity and innovation of micro, small and medium enterprises; enhance food security and sustainable agriculture in response to climate change; and foster a shared future.

During the two discussion sessions, the leaders agreed that in order to improve growth quality, competitiveness and productivity of member economies, it is imperative that APEC member economies to reinforce education quality, equip regional labourers with skills to better adapt to employment environment and labour market which are under significant changes due to the fourth industrial revolution.

“We have adopted a framework for the development of human resources in the digital age,” said the President.

“Measures and policies mentioned in the framework will not only meet the general concerns of the region, but also an impetus for Vietnam to continue effectively implementing strategic breakthroughs in human resources development, particularly high quality human resources.”

With the aim to generate new dynamisms for sustainable and inclusive growth, President Quang noted, the meeting spent a substantial amount of time discussing strategic measures to develop micro, small and medium enterprises in a green, sustainable and innovative manner; promote starts-up and supporting industry; develop sustainable agriculture in response to climate change; strengthen food, water, and energy security; enhance structural reform and capacity; mitigate natural disaster risks; and increase women’s economic empowerment and sustainable tourism development.

The leaders agreed that promoting free and open trade and investment is the mission of APEC economies to continue fostering regional linkages and connectivity, contributing to maintaining Asia-Pacific as a driver of global economic growth and connection, he said. 

“The meeting reaffirmed the commitment to completing the achievement of the Bogor Goals on liberalisation and facilitation of trade and investment, and enhancing economic and technical cooperation in efforts towards the formation of the Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP).”

“The leaders emphasised the role of APEC in backing a law-based, free, open, fair, transparent and inclusive multilateral trade system” he said.

The meeting applauded the approval of cross-border e-commerce that creates conditions for APEC to effectively tap potential for developing Internet/digital economy and global supply and value chains. 

According to President Quang, APEC is doing its utmost to complete the achievement of the Bogor Goals by 2020 and preparing itself for the fourth decade of development.  

“In order to raise the role and position of APEC in the multi-layer international complexion, we applaud the establishment of the APEC Vision Group, which aims to support senior officials in defining the path and future of the forum after 2020,” he said. 

It will be a forum that is resilient and capable of dealing with global challenges as well as highly adaptive to a rapidly changing world. 

This decision reflects the determination of the APEC member economies to build the Asia-Pacific community of peace, stability, dynamism, cohesion and prosperity, with people and businesses being the centre, he stressed.

In order to promote the role of APEC as a forum that initiates and coordinates ideas on regional linkages and connectivity, on this occasion, Vietnam organised the APEC-ASEAN Informal Dialogue for the first time with the participation of leaders of APEC economies and ten ASEAN countries, he said.

Vietnam became a member of the APEC community in 1998, since then the country has host the APEC Year twice in 2006 and 2017.

“Vietnam is an active and responsible member of the international community with an open economy which is deepening its international economic integration,” said President Quang.

More than 240 meetings were held across then localities across Vietnam throughout the year to prepare for the leaders’ meeting.-VNA