Vietnam commits to closely cooperating with other Asia Cooperation Dialogue (ACD) member countries towards peace and prosperity in the region.

The commitment was made by Ambassador Nguyen Quoc Dung, head of the Vietnamese Foreign Ministry’s Economic Affairs Department, at the 11 th ACD Ministerial Meeting in Dushanbe , Tajikistan from March 28-29.

Dung took the occasion to share Vietnam’s viewpoints on sustainable development and put forth some proposals for future ACD cooperation.

The meeting drew the participation of representatives from 32 ACD member countries under the chair of the host country’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Hamrokhon Zarifi.

With the theme “Towards Economic Growth, Stability and Prosperity in Asia through Sustainable Development”, the event aimed to promote the role of the ACD, the only transcontinental organisation currently, as well as enhance its cooperation in supporting the sustainable development of member countries and maintaining peace, harmonisation, stability and prosperity in the continent.

Participants discussed major issues such as poverty reduction, public health care, food security, energy, water resource protection, climate change adaptation, natural disaster prevention, human resources training, social equality and religious harmony.

A wide range of measures to boost cooperation such as increasing trade, investment and financial cooperation within the ACD and strengthening regional connectivity in terms of both infrastructure and institution were also tabled at the event.

They also reached consensus on establishing a temporary ACD Secretariat that will work until the second ACD Summit slated for 2015.

At the end of the meeting, participating countries approved the Dushanbe Joint Statement and agreed that the next ACD Ministerial Meeting will be held in Bahrain this November.-VNA