SOM3 to prepare crucial groundwork for APEC Leaders’ Week

In his opening remarks, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son highlighted the strong outlook for Asia-Pacific as well as challenges facing the region which include weak investment, slower trade liberalisation and reduced formation of cross-border production chains. The conference will review the work of the Economic Committee (EC), the Committee on Trade and Investment (CTI), the APEC Steering Committee on Economic and Technical Cooperation (SCE), and the Budget and Management Committee (BMC), and build on the inter-sessional work to finalise the proposed outcome documents for potential submission to APEC ministers and leaders.

To date, over 200 meetings have been held across the numerous workstream of APEC. Over the past ten days alone, a series of almost 80 meetings have been organised, including many significant, high-level events. Deputy Minister Son said: “This SOM3 is very important. It is a key meeting to discuss orientations and prepare documents to submit to the APEC Leaders’ Week to be held later this year.”