Scene at the first second APEC Senior Officials Meeting (Photo: VNA) Hanoi (VNA) – The second APEC Senior Officials Meeting (SOM 2) and related meetingsbegan in the capital city of Hanoi on May 9.
During thecourse of the first working day, the APEC Mining Task Force (MTF) will hold its11th meeting and a Workshop on Mine Closure Checklist forGovernments.
There will bemeetings of the Subcommittee on Standards and Conformance (SCSC), the FoodSafety Cooperation Forum (FSCF), the Partnership Training Institute Network(PTIN), the Group of Friends on Disability (GoFD) and the APEC PolicyPartnership on Women and the Economy (PPWE) and an Export Certificate Workshop.
SOM 2 will comprise 49 meetings, workshops anddialogues of committees and working groups of the Asia-Pacific EconomicCooperation (APEC) Forum, covering a range of spheres such as trade andinvestment liberalisation, business facilitation, human resource development,education, network economy, food safety, science, technology and creativity,mining, automobile industry and urbanisation.
At these events, APEC delegates are expected tocontinue speeding up the implementation of long-term cooperation programmes andplans in key areas and reach consensus on documents to be submitted toministers for approval, laying a foundation for preparing contents anddocuments for the APEC Economic Leaders Meeting and APEC Ministerial Meeting incentral Da Nang city in November 2017.
A Multi-stakeholder Dialogue on APEC towards 2020 and Beyond,a High-level Policy Dialogue on Human Resource Development in the Digital Age,a Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (PECC) meeting, a Senior FinanceOfficials Meeting (SFOM) and the 23rd Ministers Responsible forTrade (MRT) Meeting will also be held on this occasion.
Since its inception in 1989, APEC has proved itself asa leading economic cooperation and connectivity mechanism in the Asia-Pacificregion, focusing on three pillars: trade and investment liberalisation,business facilitation and economic-technological cooperation.
APEC now groups 21 member economies, Australia,Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong (China), Indonesia, Japan, the Republicof Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, thePhilippines, Russia, Singapore, Chinese Taipei, Thailand, the US and Vietnam,which together account for 39 percent of the world’s population and contribute59 percent of the global GDP and 48 percent of the global trade by November2016.-VNA
