As many as 2,600 delegates will make it to the third APEC Senior Officials’ Meeting and related meetings (SOM 3) expected to open in HCM City next Friday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) has announced.

As many as 2,600 delegates will make it to the third APEC Senior Officials’ Meeting and related meetings (SOM 3) expected to open in HCM City next Friday. 

Slated for August 18-30, SOM 3 will accommodate 75 meetings, seminars, and dialogues by four committees and 38 working groups of the Asian-Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC).  

“The figure shows how important the SOM 3 is as it surpasses the number of meetings in the first two previous SOM, which were 59 and 50 respectively,” Nguyen Bích Thuy from the APEC 2017 Secretariat told the press briefing in Hanoi    on Friday.

“More than 1,700 international and over 500 national participants from APEC member economies have so far registered to attend the SOM 3, excluding those scheduled for a food security and climate change week in the Mekong Delta City of Cần Thơ,” Thủy added.

The APEC 2017 Secretariat highlighted three key activities including the High-level Policy Dialogue on Food Security and Sustainable Agriculture in Response to Climate Change in Can Tho from August 18 to 25.

Another significant event will be the seminar on Promoting Economic, Financial and Social Inclusion in HCM City on August 28.

The seminar for inclusive growth is a highlighted initiative of Vietnam and expected to promote agenda for the APEC Year 2017. APEC 2017 SOM Chair is expected to chair the event.

The Ministry of Health will chair seven meetings on health-related issues during which relevant strategies and policies in the APEC region as well as action plans for special working groups will be discussed, said deputy director of the ministry’s International Co-operation Department Nguyen Mạnh Cường.

Accordingly, Health Minister Nguyen Thi Kim Tien will preside over the seventh High-Level Meeting on Health and Economy slated for August 23-28 – another key event.

Cuong said the event is expected to help promote Việt Nam’s initiative in inclusive economic, financial and social development through the building of a sustainable financial system in public health care and a roadmap that provides all people with health services.

The meeting is projected to issue a joint declaration and recommendations which will be sent to the APEC Finance Ministers’ Meeting and the APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting in November 2017 in the central city of Da Nang.

Within the framework of SOM 3, Minister Tien is scheduled to hold bilateral meetings with US Secretary of Health and Human Services Thomas E. Price and Japanese Senator Keizo Takemin, and meet with representatives of APEC partners and relevant organisations, Cuong said. 

VNS