Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh

APEC 2017 in Vietnam focuses on the main issues within the framework of the AMM29 as well as the APEC Summit, which demonstrates the determination towards common goals set by the APEC economies.

At the AMM29, the contents discussed and approved by the Ministers were important and they will be submitted to the APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting. These contents are comprehensive and diverse from many angles and levels, reflecting the common interest and benefits of APEC economies.

Minister Tran Tuan Anh said that although the conference had many different opinions, it came to a very positive result: focusing on the interests of APEC economies. The conference made concrete, practical results, contributing to the implementation of trade and investment liberalization, as well as facilitating the business environment of the Asia Pacific business community.

"The initiatives of the host country - Vietnam - have been highly appreciated as they reflect the reality and serve the process of globalization and APEC," said Minister Tran Tuan Anh.

He said: “For example, the APEC initiative on facilitating cross-border e-commerce has received the support of all APEC economies because it reflects the general trend of economic and trade development. We did not stop in evaluating the goals and results achieved, the 2017 plan, especially the Bogor goals 2020, but approved important mechanisms and initiatives to continue the Bogor Goals after 2020 and beyond. Vietnam’s initiatives to implement the post-Bogor goals was also adopted, along with other APEC strategies to develop strategic and practical plans to help APEC reach the common goal of sustainable development.”

Sharing more information why this year APEC could not pass the action plan on the implementation of the Lima Declaration on FTAAP, Minister Tran Tuan Anh said that the realization of the Lima Declaration on the implementation of a free trade area of Asia-Pacific (FTAAP) is one of the important topics of discussion in APEC. 

In 2017, there were many forums and frameworks and APEC economies have studied and worked together to develop and identify key elements for implementing the action plan to implement the LIMA Declaration on FTAAP. This is an important target for the 21 economies of the Asia-Pacific region, which spreads across four continents with different levels of socio-economic development. In many cases, the development of a specific program of action to implement the LIMA Declaration with different priorities and contents cannot be implemented simply. In spite of great efforts, there are still gaps in the selection of specific areas and contents for this action plan.

As such, APEC and Ministers decided to devote time to further discuss and clarify the basis for reaching consensus on the priorities and contents of each member economy.

Therefore, APEC decided to continue discussion on this issue in 2018 to ensure a realistic plan of action, taking into account the different interests of regional economies in order to ensure effective implementation of the program.

Thuy Linh