The APEC Business Summit 2017 hosted by the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) in co-operation with the APEC National Secretariat opened on November 8. This was the largest business summit in APEC history with the participation of more than 2,000 CEOs of regional and international corporations.

At this forum, the APEC business community welcome Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang, US President Donald Trump, President of China Xi Jinping and many leaders of the world's leading economies that are occupying nearly 60% of the world’s GDP and 50% of global investment and trade.

Speaking at the meeting, President Tran Dai Quang affirmed that APEC is the most effective cooperation mechanism in promoting the role of enterprises, making Asia-Pacific the driving force of growth and linkages as well as the nursery of new ideas for the future.

The President stressed that in order to build APEC as the leading regional economic integration forum, three issues should be addressed. Firstly, maintaining the momentum of connection recovery of the global economy, promoting APEC's pioneering role in trade and investment liberalization, fulfilling the Bogor Goals by 2020, promoting public-private partnerships. Secondly, APEC should step up its efforts to ensure the inclusiveness of development. Thirdly, businesses in the region need to actively contribute to the process of building and realizing APEC's vision after 2020 to build a peaceful, stable, dynamic, linked and prosperous Asia-Pacific.

As the largest forum for business in APEC, discussing the future of the regional economy, this year with the theme of "Creating new dynamism and fostering the shared future," APEC CEO Summit 2017 focused on discussion of new trends of globalization, sci-tech revolution, business connection, promoting the dynamism and creativity of the business community to exploit new opportunities opened up in the region, promoting economic development cooperation and realizing the potential of trade and investment brought by APEC.

Vu Tien Loc, Chairman of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) and President of APEC CEO Summit 2017, expressed the hope that the vision and message of the leaders will contribute to shaping the future of the world economy and APEC, consolidating our belief in a free and fair trade.

"I have a firm belief that the three-wheeled vehicle with the three main engines —globalization that is integrated with the 4th Industrial Revolution and strong institutional reforms in the economy to create a favorable and transparent business environment, promote the linking of large, micro, small and medium sized enterprises in the global value chain so "everyone wins", so that "no one is left behind"   — will not be just aspiration but will be a reality in our digital age and APEC CEO Summit 2017 will go down in history as a milestone of that consensus," said Vu Tien Loc.

CEO Summit ended on November 10, with 15 sessions with the participation of leaders of APEC economies, famous organizations and enterprises around the world.

Nguyen Thanh