A seminar on ASEAN’s position towards the G20 Seoul Summit took place in Hanoi on August 20.

The event was co-organised by the Vietnamese Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Strategy and Finance of the Republic of Korea (RoK).

At the conference, the two sides shared view points on issues of mutual concerns within the framework of G20, not only as bilateral dialogues but also as dialogues between the G20 and ASEAN.

The participants discussed the ASEAN position in the G20, highlighting the bloc’s participation in two G20 summits, during which Vietnam on behalf of the association attended the G20 Summit in Toronto, Canada in June this year.

The seminar highly appreciated the speech delivered by Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung at the G20 Summit as well as the document featuring ASEAN views on G20 issues the country released, which the seminar said, reveal active participation of Vietnam in particular and of ASEAN in general in G20 forums.

The RoK spoke highly of Vietnam ’s participation in G20 as ASEAN Chair and promised to soon come up with an official recommendation on Vietnam ’s attendance in all G20 meetings in 2010 in capacity as representative of ASEAN.

The participants agreed that ASEAN - one of the most dynamic regions in the global economic map - needs to be more active in the G20 process.

Addressing the closing ceremony, Deputy Finance Minister Tran Xuan Ha spoke highly of the coordination of the RoK’s Ministry of Strategy and Finance to boost relations between the two countries.

He said the seminar is a milestone in the cooperation between the two ministries, not only in bilateral frameworks but also in regional and international arenas./.