Hanoi (VNA) – By
hosting the 2017 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders’ Week, Vietnam has not only reaffirmed its policy
of deepening international integration
and attaching great importance to Asia-Pacific, according to an article
published on Singaporean newswire www.theindependent.sg on November 5.
The article also highlighted
Vietnam’s strategic visions towards a peaceful, stable and dynamic Asia-Pacific
region, which continues to be the driver of regional as well as global economic
growth and linkages.
In the article entitled “APEC 2017: Vietnam contributing to
regional inclusive growth”, the author said the APEC
theme of “Creating new dynamism, Fostering a shared future” for 2017, set by
Vietnam, was highly evaluated and supported by APEC members and partners.
On the basis of promoting the
achievements of APEC cooperation over the past time, Vietnam has selected four
major priorities, namely promoting sustainable, innovative and inclusive
growth; deepening regional economic integration; strengthening micro, small and
medium enterprises’ competitiveness and innovation in the digital age; and
enhancing food security and sustainable agriculture in response to climate
change.
Moreover, in the role of APEC’s Chair, Vietnam
has received strong support from other APEC members for proposing many major
initiatives, like establishing the mechanism for discussing APEC’s long-term
cooperation.
This includes forming the
Forum’s vision post-2020, holding high-level policy dialogues on developing
human resources, APEC’s multilateral dialogues towards 2020, especially the
initiative on promoting inclusiveness in developing regional economy, society,
and finance.
It said the initiative on
promoting inclusiveness in developing regional economy, society and finance are
expected to connect APEC’s existing cooperative programs, providing all people
with the fruits of globalisation and trade liberalisation, which has been
widely supported by other APEC members, as it met many members’ concerns for
ensuring their people as well as entrepreneurs take part fully and share
interests equally from economic growth and connections, in the context of
increased inequality and development gap.
The initiative reaffirms the practical role of
APEC, meeting its members’ common
expectations, contributing to the establishment of a sustainable and
inclusively developing APEC community.
The article quoted Vietnamese Deputy
Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son, who is also APEC Senior Officials’ Meeting Chair,
as saying that cooperation on inclusiveness between APEC economies, in fact, is
scattered and lacking close coordination. APEC has not formulated comprehensive
policies to boost economic, financial and social inclusiveness, while these
three areas are interdependent and complementary to each other.
Meanwhile, UN Resident
Representative to Vietnam, Kamal Malhotra highly regarded Vietnam’s initiative,
highlighting that inclusive growth is a key element in the 2030 UN Agenda for
Sustainable Development and reflects the principle of “leaving no one behind”
and the UN’s vision of “building a just, equitable, tolerant, open and
socially inclusive world, in which all the needs of the most vulnerable are
met”.
Vietnam’s efforts to propose the suitable APEC
theme, priorities and cooperative initiatives have met the concerns and interests of other
APEC member economies, businesses and people, being consistent with the general
trend in international cooperation and contributing to the regional
socio-economic development strategies, including sustainable development and
human-centred development, it concluded.-VNA