A preparatory meeting of the ASEAN Economic Ministers (AEM Preparatory
Meeting) took place in Bali, Indonesia on Nov. 16 to prepare contents
for the 19th ASEAN Summit, which will take place from Nov. 17-19.
Attending the meeting were the ASEAN General Secretary and economic
ministers from ten ASEAN member countries. Minister of Industry and
Trade Vu Huy Hoang led the Vietnamese delegation to the meeting.
At the meeting, ministers reviewed the progress of building the ASEAN
Economic Community (AEC) in the second phase, checked the master plan to
build the AEC and discussed the agenda items for the 6 th AEC Council
Meeting (AEC 6), which opened immediately after this meeting.
The AEC 6 approved documents to submit to ASEAN leaders, including
content of the 19 th ASEAN Summit’s statement on equal development
framework in ASEAN.
The meeting also discussed
current global economic prospects and reviewed the implementation of
measures for the establishment of AEC by 2015 and the master plan on
ASEAN connectivity to submit to the 19th ASEAN Summit.
On the sidelines of the two meetings, Minister Vu Huy Hoang held
bilateral meetings with officials from ASEAN member countries and
partner countries to discuss economic and trade cooperation.
The Vietnamese Minister and Indonesia’s Minister of Trade signed a
protocol to modify the Memorandum of Understanding on rice trade
previously signed by the two countries, which will contribute to raising
Vietnam’s export turnover to Indonesia in future.
On this occasion, the ASEAN economic ministers signed the second
protocol to alter the ASEAN-Republic of Korea Trade in Goods Agreement
and the Protocol to implement the second service commitment package in
the ASEAN-China Agreement on Trade in Services. These signings
contributed to fulfilling the legal framework for trade development
between ASEAN and partner countries./.