ASEAN senior economic officials met in Hanoi on March 7 to prepare
discussion points for the 19th ASEAN Economic Ministers ’ (AEM)
Retreat, which will open on March 8.
Minister of
Industry and Trade Vu Huy Hoang led the Vietnamese delegation at the
meeting, which was attended by delegations from the other nine ASEAN
member countries and the group’s Secretariat.
Participants reviewed the development progress of the ASEAN Economic
Community that will be established by 2015, sought measures to step up
the founding of the community and pointed out priorities to be carried
out, realising agreements and implementing trade, services and
investment tasks.
They discussed the association’s
important cooperation initiatives this year, and reviewed documents that
are scheduled to be signed during the AEM Retreat, including the draft
revised protocol on some ASEAN economic agreements relating to the trade
of goods and investment.
ASEAN, or the Association
of Southeast Asian Nations, has 10 members. They are Singapore,
Thailand, the Philippines, Brunei, Myanmar, Indonesia,
Malaysia , Laos, Cambodia , and Vietnam .
According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, ASEAN is one of
Vietnam ’s priority trade and investment partners. It is the third
largest importer of Vietnamese goods and the second largest commodity
supplier to the country. Two-way trade between Vietnam and ASEAN
member countries exceeded 38 billion USD in 2012.-VNA