State President Truong Tan Sang will attend the 19 th Asia-PacificEconomic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders’ Meeting in Hawaii , the USfrom Nov. 10-13 at the invitation of US President Barack Obama.
Vietnam ’s participation in this APEC meeting reflects the 11 thParty Congress foreign policy of proactively promoting intensive andcomprehensive international integration and continuing to play animportant role in Asia-Pacific regional cooperation frameworks,including APEC.
This will also be a chance forVietnam to take advantage of suitable APEC programmes in an effort tostabilise the macro-economy, serve socio-economic development goals andrenew the growth model.
The APEC meeting willoffer an opportunity for Vietnam to boost political, trade andinvestment relations with regional partners, while helping to deepenties between Vietnam and other APEC members through the exchange ofinformation on the socio-economic situation as well as on the guidelinesand policies of Vietnam .
With the theme,“Strengthening regional economic connectivity and expanding trade”, the19 th APEC Leaders’ Meeting will focus on three areas of priority,namely regional economic connectivity and trade expansion; green growthand advancing regulatory cooperation and convergence.
Cooperation on the technical economy and human security will bediscussed at ministerial meetings and senior officials meetings (SOMs).
Economic experts said that in the context ofglobal economic difficulties, the strengthening of trade and cooperationin solving economic issues to overcome crisis will open up newopportunities for all APEC members to boost their economic development.
Established in 1989 and with 18 summits held, APECis now the largest economic trade cooperation group in the Asia-Pacificregion. It includes 21 member economies and accounts for 40 percent ofthe global population, 55 percent of GDP and 44 percent of world trade.
APEC is actively speeding up efforts to strengthenthe efficiency of cooperation and improve its role in the worldeconomic restructuring process, especially in the face of the emergenceof other regional mechanisms such as the East Asia Summit (EAS), theTrans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement and G20.
Since it joined APEC in November 1998, Vietnam has been an activeand responsible member of the organisation. The success of APEC Year2006 hosted by Vietnam has left good impressions on APEC members.
Vietnam has made contributions to buildingAPEC cooperation contents, strategies and action plans in all fields andseriously implemented the organisation’s commitments. The country hasactively proposed about 70 initiatives on trade, investment, technicalcooperation, healthcare, and responses to a state of emergency andcounter-terrorism.
Intra-APEC cooperativeactivities have helped improve Vietnam ’s position in the region andthe international arena, as well as boost bilateral relations withimportant partners in the Asia-Pacific region.
Through joining APEC, Vietnam has gained better access to capitalsources, modern technology and management experience through investmentand trade activities with major economies like the US, Japan, China andCanada./.