An overview of APEC SOM 1 (Photo: VNA) Kuala Lumpur (VNA) – The first Senior Officials’Meeting (SOM 1) and related meetings of the Asia-Pacific Cooperation (APEC)forum 2020 (APEC 2020) took place in Malaysia’s Putrajaya city from February20-22.
The Vietnamese delegation to the event comprises representativesof the ministries of Industry and Trade, and Foreign Affairs, and the office ofthe intersectoral steering committee for international integration.
Within the framework of SOM 1, there were many important workshopsand policy dialogues, including high-level multi-party ones on APEC’s post-2020vision.
Host Malaysia has selected the theme of “Optimising Human Potential towards a Future of SharedProsperity,” for APEC 2020, and outlined three priorities for its Chairmanship, namely improvingthe narrative of trade and investment, inclusive economic participation throughdigital economy and technology, and driving innovative sustainability.
The agenda of SOM 1 was based on the three priorities, focusing onsuch issues as accelerating regional economic integration, reviewing the realisationof Bogor goals and building APEC’s post-2020 vision that will be submitted tothe APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting scheduled for November.
The delegates looked into preparations for the MinistersResponsible for Trade Meeting and the Tourism Ministers Meeting slated forApril, and the Structural Reform Ministerial Meeting in August.
They shared the views on APEC’s contributions to the multilateraltrade system in the context of the 25th founding anniversary of the World TradeOrganisation (WTO) and the upcoming 12th WTO Ministerial Conference (MC 12).
The ministers paid special attention to initiatives regardingdigital economy and technology.
On the sidelines of SOM 2, Malaysia is scheduled to organise adigital week from April 12-19. Also in April, the Digital Economy SteeringGroup will convened their first meeting in the year to discuss in detail theimplementation of the APEC Internet and Digital Economy Roadmap./.
VNA
