Jakarta (VNA) - Vietnam joined nine other ASEAN member states at a regional conference held on May 21 to carry out the Initiative for ASEAN Integration (IAI) work plan IV during 2021-2025, which was adopted at the 37th ASEAN Summit last year.

Addressing the conference, Ambassador Nguyen Hai Bang, head of the Vietnamese permanent mission to ASEAN and Chairman of the IAI task force in 2021, emphasised the role of the initiative in narrowing development gaps among ASEAN member states and promoting efforts to build the ASEAN Community, especially in the context of COVID-19.

The work plan IV makes significant contributions to the ASEAN Comprehensive Recovery Framework (ACRF) while supporting the bloc, and particularly CLMV nations - Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam - during their socio-economic transition process, to enhance capacity to recover from the pandemic, he said.

Participants discussed ten proposals for model projects in the five strategic fields of the IAI work plan, and suggested ways to carry out IAI projects in a more effective fashion given that the pandemic has become more complex in the region.

The IAI was launched in 2000 with a view to narrowing the development divide and helping CLMV countries, which were new members, fully integrate into the regional economy./.