The 17th ASEAN Economic Ministers’ Meeting (AEM) Retreat wrapped upin Vientiane on Feb. 27 after two days of sitting focusing on promotingregional economic integration.
Minister of Industry and Trade Vu Huy Hoang led the Vietnamese delegation to the meeting.
Themeeting aimed to work out cooperation plan for the whole year and somestrategic orientations on economic integration for the bloc in comingyears.
The officials agreed the positive results in theimplementation of the roadmap for the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC)with 83.2 percent of the workload completed in 2008-2009. Vietnam wasone of the three best performing member with a completion rate of 94.2percent.
However, the officials shared the view that ASEANis facing challenges due to a lack of legal regulations for manyregional integration commitments and lower than expectedharmonisation of policies among ASEAN members. Especially, in the2010-2011 period of the 104 measures to be completed in the AEC roadmap,60 percent of them have been left to be done in 2011.
Theministers paid special attentions to boosting exchange with the businesscommunity to create favourable conditions to maximise the benefits ofAEC.
They affirmed to designate necessary resources to achievethe equal development goal through two major activities. A programmewill be designed to help Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia to narrowthe development gap with other ASEAN members in farm produce,investment, transport, trade facilitation and capacity in implementingFTAs commitments.
At the same time, small and mediumenterprises (SMEs) will receive assistance to raise competitivecapacity, thus strengthening their participation in regionalintegration.
Regarding the relationship with dialogue partners,the officials agreed that changes in regional linkage, especially theestablishment of newly-emerged economic centres, have resulted inmulti-faceted impacts on ASEAN’s position. In this context, ASEAN needsto work hard to implement internal regional integration targets timely,strengthen its central role in relations with partners and get readywith strategic steps to steer ASEAN towards higher levels of integrationin coming years.
The meeting also agreed many measures tocontinue boosting cooperation and partnership with partners, includingChina, India, Japan, the EU and Russia.
The Vietnamese delegation made active contributions to discussions at the meeting.
The meeting’s results will be reported to the 18 th ASEAN Summit to be held in Indonesia in May./.
Minister of Industry and Trade Vu Huy Hoang led the Vietnamese delegation to the meeting.
Themeeting aimed to work out cooperation plan for the whole year and somestrategic orientations on economic integration for the bloc in comingyears.
The officials agreed the positive results in theimplementation of the roadmap for the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC)with 83.2 percent of the workload completed in 2008-2009. Vietnam wasone of the three best performing member with a completion rate of 94.2percent.
However, the officials shared the view that ASEANis facing challenges due to a lack of legal regulations for manyregional integration commitments and lower than expectedharmonisation of policies among ASEAN members. Especially, in the2010-2011 period of the 104 measures to be completed in the AEC roadmap,60 percent of them have been left to be done in 2011.
Theministers paid special attentions to boosting exchange with the businesscommunity to create favourable conditions to maximise the benefits ofAEC.
They affirmed to designate necessary resources to achievethe equal development goal through two major activities. A programmewill be designed to help Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia to narrowthe development gap with other ASEAN members in farm produce,investment, transport, trade facilitation and capacity in implementingFTAs commitments.
At the same time, small and mediumenterprises (SMEs) will receive assistance to raise competitivecapacity, thus strengthening their participation in regionalintegration.
Regarding the relationship with dialogue partners,the officials agreed that changes in regional linkage, especially theestablishment of newly-emerged economic centres, have resulted inmulti-faceted impacts on ASEAN’s position. In this context, ASEAN needsto work hard to implement internal regional integration targets timely,strengthen its central role in relations with partners and get readywith strategic steps to steer ASEAN towards higher levels of integrationin coming years.
The meeting also agreed many measures tocontinue boosting cooperation and partnership with partners, includingChina, India, Japan, the EU and Russia.
The Vietnamese delegation made active contributions to discussions at the meeting.
The meeting’s results will be reported to the 18 th ASEAN Summit to be held in Indonesia in May./.
