Permanent Deputy Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son (Photo: VNA)Hanoi (VNA) - APEC leaders recentlyadopted the APEC Vision 2040, and Vietnam will actively contribute to its realisationto help build an open, dynamic, resilient, and peaceful Asia-Pacific community,according to Permanent Deputy Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son.
Founded in 1989, APEC comprises 21 economies: Australia,Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong (China), Indonesia, Japan, the Republicof Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, thePhilippines, Russia, Singapore, Taiwan (China), Thailand, the US, and Vietnam.
In an article on the APEC Vision 2040, Son notedthat the vision was adopted at the 27th APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting onNovember 20, marking the starting point of a new journey of cooperation towardsan open, dynamic, resilient, and peaceful Asia-Pacific community.
Amid complex and unpredictable developments inthe region and the world, multilateral cooperation has become more urgent thanever. The APEC Vision 2040 has given new impetus to regional cooperation and economicconnectivity while affirming APEC’s role as the leading mechanism of economicconnectivity and consolidating trust in multilateralism, he said.
Only five years after its inception, at thesecond APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting in Indonesia’s Bogor city in November1994, participants approved the Bogor Goals, targeting liberalised trade andinvestment for developed economies by 2010 and for developing countries by2020.
These goals became the “lodestar” for APECactivities over the last two decades, turning the forum into an increasinglycohesive market and a leading mechanism for guiding regional trade andinvestment liberalisation, thus contributing to peace, stability, anddevelopment in the Asia-Pacific, the Deputy Minister noted.
In the APEC Vision 2040, leaders of membereconomies stated: “Our vision is an open, dynamic, resilient, and peacefulAsia-Pacific community by 2040, for the prosperity of all our people and futuregenerations.”
Amid a profoundly changing world, an evolving newregional architecture, a science and technology boom, and complex developments fromglobal challenges, this vision sends a strong message affirming that memberscontinue to attach great importance to the Asia-Pacific and APEC, Son said.
With a commitment to maintaining APEC’svoluntary, non-binding, and consensus-building principles, leaders identifiedthree drivers for achieving the vision: trade and investment, innovation anddigitalisation, and strong, balanced, secure, sustainable, and inclusivegrowth.
These important cooperative pillars willguarantee sustainable growth in the Asia-Pacific as well as the dynamism andresilience of the APEC community, Son went on.
The Deputy Minister held that together with theHanoi Declaration on the ASEAN Community’s Post-2025 Vision, adopted at the37th ASEAN Summit in November, the building and implementation of the APECVision 2040 will continue to affirm member economies’ cooperative spirit andresponsible contributions for the sake of prosperous development, peace, andstability in the Asia-Pacific over the next two decades.
In his article, the official pointed out thatduring the more than 20 years of its proactive, active, dynamic, and creativemembership of APEC, Vietnam has left many considerable imprints on the forum’sdevelopment process.
As the host of APEC activities in 2006, Vietnamproposed the idea of an Asia-Pacific free trade area, which has been identifiedas one of the orientations for the region over the next 20 years.
It again asserted its foothold in the APECcooperation process via the Da Nang Declaration adopted at the 25th APECEconomic Leaders’ Meeting in 2017. This affirmed the resolve to promote economicconnectivity and initiatives on inclusive economic, financial, and socialdevelopment, along with human resources development in the digital age.
Notably, Vietnam also suggested the formation ofthe APEC Vision Group to launch discussions on the building of a post-2020vision, Son wrote.
Over the last three years, the country hascontinued making practical and outstanding contributions to this buildingprocess, he noted, adding that as deputy head of the APEC Vision Group, itworked to promote consensus during the compilation of the group’s report. Italso joined other ASEAN members to propose ideas that suited the commoninterest to promote the role of the Asia-Pacific, centred on people and securinginclusive and sustainable development.
Vietnam’s proposals and ideas were included inthe APEC Vision 2040, Son noted.
With its stature and power from nearly 35 yearsof reforms and over 20 years of APEC membership, he concluded, Vietnam willcontinue its active contributions to the implementation of the APEC Vision2040, thereby helping realise shared visions and aspirations and turning theminto “fruits of peace, stability, and happiness for all our people” as PrimeMinister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said at the 27th APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting./.
VNA
