Vietnam fully supports the measures required in order to fulfil the Bali commitments and Bogor goals, as well as the facilitation and liberalisation of trade and investment, President Truong Tan Sang stated at the 22nd Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders’ Meeting in Beijing, China on November 11.

To guarantee effective regional connections, the President called for stronger efforts to achieve the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, devise a post-2015 development agenda and address global challenges.

APEC should intensify economic and technical cooperation while joining and supporting regional initiatives to boost interconnections, including the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the Greater Mekong Subregion, he said.

With negotiations on 15 free trade deals expected to end by 2020, Vietnam is set to become a key link in an expansive economic network, including 18 APEC member economies, he added.

In his opening speech, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced that China would contribute 10 million USD to capacity development projects in APEC’s developing economies.

During the plenary session “Promoting regional economic connectivity”, leaders agreed that APEC was in a prime position to shape the future via the Asian-Pacific partnership, which will create an open economic space that fosters innovation and inclusive growth.

Since its establishment 25 years ago, APEC has reduced tariffs from 16.9 percent to 5.7 percent, and increased internal trade six-fold to 9.9 trillion USD. Joint efforts on climate change, food and energy security, maritime issues, and green growth have borne fruits.

Participants vowed to boost APEC’s role as a forum for sustainable economic growth and prosperity, as well as an open trade and investment environment in the Asian-Pacific region.

The 21-member organisation comprises the 12 economies currently negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement, namely Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States and Vietnam, along with China, Hong Kong (China), Indonesia, the Republic of Korea, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Russia, Taiwan (China) and Thailand.

APEC represents approximately 40 percent of the world’s population, 57 percent of global economic output and 48 percent of total trade.

Vietnam to join APEC economies in innovative development

Vietnam will continue working with other APEC member economies to promote innovative development, economic reform and growth, affirmed President Truong Tan Sang at a November 11 discussion as part of the 22nd Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders’ Meeting in Beijing, China.

In his speech delivered at the plenary session on “Innovative Development, Economic Reform and Growth”, the President stressed the need to attach innovative development and reform to efforts to narrow development gap, ensure social welfare and gender equality, and reduce poverty.

He affirmed Vietnam applauds APEC’s food security roadmap to 2020 as this issue is one of the human beings’ challenges in the 21st century.

He proposed paying due attention to the close relation between food security and water resource security, fostering science and technology cooperation in environment-friendly agricultural production, and boosting trade liberalisation for food products in order to ensure people’s equal access.

The Vietnamese State leader stated that promoting maritime economic collaboration on the basis of mutual benefit and interest, and coordination in disaster response, rescue operations, fisheries and technological application will contribute to broadening and deepening APEC cooperation in the new context.

To address current challenges and risks of instability in development and security in the region, he highlighted the necessity for APEC economies to increase dialogues and efforts in line with international law and regional code of conduct.

At the session, APEC leaders emphasised that prospects for APEC’s common prosperity will depend on innovative development, economic reform and growth, affirming support for all efforts to foster economic restructuring, developing traditional industries and tapping new economic growth potential like green, maritime and network economies.

During a discussion on “Strengthening Comprehensive Connectivity and Upgrading Infrastructure”, the leaders stressed the importance of intensifying comprehensive connectivity for economic growth, and enhancing maritime and aviation linkages.

They applauded the results gained by APEC economies in strengthening connectivity and upgrading infrastructure as well as their efforts in promoting public-private partnership (PPP) on infrastructure via APEC initiatives.

Speaking at the event, President Truong Tan Sang suggested APEC economies pay attention to coordination in addressing global challenges, improving the capacity for developing members, stepping up cooperation in education and training, strengthening public-private partnership and promoting the integral role of enterprises.

The “Master Plan on ASEAN Connectivity” as well as ongoing projects on infrastructure in ASEAN and the Mekong Sub-region can be considered a core factor to promote connectivity in the Asian-Pacific region, he added.

VNA/VNN