Rimbink Pato Obe, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Papua New Guinea (Photo: VNA) Da Nang (VNA) - The government and people of Vietnam have done excellent preparation for APEC 2017 and Papua New Guinea wants to learn from Vietnam, said Rimbink Pato Obe, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Papua New Guinea, host of APEC 2018.
Talking to a Vietnam News Agency reporter on the sidelines of the 29th APEC Ministerial Meeting (AMM) in the central city of Da Nang on November 8, the minister elaborated that he enjoys his stay in Vietnam and the service here is fantastic.
He also affirmed “everything in terms of preparation for the next APEC Year in Papua New Guinea is on track”.
Papua New Guinea sets three key areas: improving connectivity, deepening regional economic integration; promoting inclusive and sustainable growth; and strengthening economic growth through structural reform as priorities for next year’s APEC, he revealed.
Regarding the AMM’s recommendations to be submitted to the APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting on November 10, Rimbink Pato Obe said all of them are important.
“We are members of the APEC community, we are part of inclusiveness, part of connectivity, trade liberalisation, inflow and outflow investment, trade within the APEC economies so anything enhances trade and investment between APEC economies we will support,” he said.
He also said he expects all recommendations to be adopted because APEC’s future will go through all of them.
“If there is a challenge in relation to one or two recommendations, I think our leaders are working on it and we are looking for them reaching consensus,” he noted.
Talking about relations with Vietnam, the diplomat said “Vietnam is a country of great history and we want to learn from it”.
Vietnam has coffee, cocoa, some of the fisheries and training facilities that his country is in need, as a result, Papua New Guinea wants to connect better now with Vietnam, he added.
The APEC Economic Leaders’ Week from November 6-11 is drawing around 10,000 delegates from the 21 APEC member economies.
Established in 1989, APEC comprises Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong (China), Indonesia, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Chinese Taipei, Thailand, the US, and Vietnam.
It represents 39 percent of the world population, 57 percent of the world GDP and 47 percent of the total trade.-VNA
VNA
