Participants at the Committee on Trade and Investment (CTI) meeting on Capacity Building Needs Initiative (CBNI) (Photo: VNA)Khanh Hoa (VNA) - The first APECSenior Officials’ Meeting (SOM 1) went on in Nha Trang city on February 23 with430 delegates participating in 11 activities of eight committees, workinggroups and forums.
They included meetings of the Committee on Tradeand Investment (CTI), the Competition Policy and Law Group (CPLG), theSub-Committee on Customs Procedures (SCCP), the Group of Service (GOS), theInvestment Experts' Group (IEG), the Tourism Working Group (TWG), and theHealth Working Group (HWG), and the Electronic Commerce Steering Group(ECSG).
The TWG convened a meeting of its SteeringCommittee discussing orientations and measures to promote regional economicsvia sustainable tourism.
It also held a workshop on sustainable tourism,during which Vice Deputy Director General of the Vietnam NationalAdministration of Tourism Ha Van Sieu affirmed that the Asian – Pacific region hasbecome a magnet for international and regional tourists.
In 2015, the region welcomed 396 millionarrivals, accounting for 33 percent of the world’s total holiday-makers,generating jobs for 47.9 labourers. APEC sets out to welcome 800 millioninternational visitors by 2025, according to Sieu.
The event was initiated by Vietnam to prepare fora policy high-level roundtable conference on sustainable tourism,scheduled to take place in Ha Long city in June, Sieu said.
Aconference on APEC policies on support industries was also opened on the day aspart of activities to implement the initiative to develop APEC support industryinitiated by Vietnam and co-chaired by the country and some APEC members.
Theinitiative aims to increase exchange of experience towards improving andmodernizing the support industry of APEC member economies. Opinions of domesticand foreign experts at the event will serve as references for building adocument on APEC models in the industry that is scheduled to be approved within2017.
Thesame day, a seminar discussing the promotion of products that contribute tosustainable and inclusive growth through rural development and povertyreduction concluded, with many recommendations expected to be discussed at theAPEC Foreign Ministers and Economic Chiefs in November in Da Nang city.
TheGOS hosted a Public-Private Dialogue on Services, during which participantsshared experience and viewpoints on ways to strengthen service cooperation aswell as measures to remove policy obstacles hindering the growth of regionalservice providers, especially in distribution, transportation and logistics.
APECleaders endorsed the APEC service cooperation framework in 2015 and APECServices Competitiveness Roadmap (ASCR) in 2016 with a view to creating a fairand transparent service environment in the region until 2025 and over 6.8percent service growth.
Meanwhile,the HWG convened its first working day, reviewing its performance in 2016,hearing priorities for major events in 2017 and preparing an agenda for ahigh-level dialogue on health and economics slated for August in Ho Chi MinhCity.
Alsobeginning discussion on the day, the IEG focused on business issues andnew-generation investments, including sustainable and inclusive investments.
TheSCCP officials concluded their meeting in conjunction with the WTO’s TradeFacilitation Agreement officially taking effect. The pact was ratified by twothirds of the WTO members on February 22.
Thesub-committee reached an agreement on their 2017 working agenda.
TheECSG’s Meeting and the CPLG’s workshop on economics in competition policy alsocompleted their agendas.
Resultsof the two functions will be submitted to the two bodies’ plenary sessionsscheduled for February 24.
Onthe sidelines of the meetings, the APEC Secretariat also organised its annualtraining on project management to improve capacity of APEC member economies,particularly the developing ones. -VNA
VNA
