(VOVworld) – The 48th ASEAN Economic Ministers Meeting and related meetings took place last week in Vientiane, Laos. The Vietnamese delegation, led by Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh, made positive contributions to the success of the meetings.
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| The Vietnamese delegation at the 48th ASEAN Economic Ministers Meeting (Photo: My Binh) |
2016 is the first year of implementing the ASEAN Community Vision 2025 since ASEAN leaders established the community on December 31, 2015. During the recent ASEAN Economic Ministers Meeting, Vietnamese officials attended a series of important meetings to improve internal cooperative frameworks and expand ASEAN’s cooperation with its partners in Northeast Asia, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, India, and the US. Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh said: “At this meeting, Vietnam discussed the specifics of implementing the ASEAN Economic Community 2016. The topics were very relevant to our economy and our people’s livelihoods. Vietnam raised a number of issues and created consensus.”
Vietnam has supported Laos, the rotating Chair of ASEAN, in creating internal consensus and consolidating ASEAN’s role. Vietnam is one of the ASEAN countries to have best implemented an initiative on trade facilitation to reduce costs and enhance business competitiveness. Minister Tuan Anh again: “A wide range of large ASEAN projects have seen greater contributions from Vietnam, including like electronic certification of origin, self-certification of origin, networking, and building a single window mechanism. With Vietnam’s involvement, ASEAN has taken a giant step forward in this area. This can be considered a fundamental breakthrough in helping businesses approach the market, removing obstacles in administrative procedures, and creating sustainable development in trade flow within ASEAN.”
At the ASEAN Economic Ministers Meeting, Vietnam continued to promote initiative on regional economic cooperation between Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Vietnam, and between Mekong Subregion countries and Japan. This effort is important to socio-economic development in Vietnam’s central and southern regions.