The first Senior Officials’ Meeting of APEC 2017 officially opens in central coastal Khánh Hòa Province’s Nha Trang City on Thursday morning with attendees from 21 member economies.

President Trần Đại Quang and his spouse chaired a welcome ceremony in Hà Nội yesterday for Japanese Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko who arrived in Việt Nam on February 28 for their six-day State visit.

The percentage of Vietnamese citizens with health insurance has risen dramatically, reaching 81.7 per cent as of last year thanks to new regulations in the Health Insurance Law, said Minister of Heath Nguyễn Thị Kim Tiến.

Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc urged Government members to take drastic measures to attain the targeted growth rate of 6.7 percent this year at the Cabinet’s February meeting in Hà Nội yesterday.

Tomorrow and the next day senior officials from the 21 APEC economies will get together for their ever first meeting of the year in Nha Trang and make decisions on Việt Nam’s priorities and the particular initiatives to be carried out in the year.

Việt Nam has proposed four priorities for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum that it is hosting this year: sustainable and inclusive growth, regional economic integration, promotion of small and medium business and improving food security. The goals were laid out yesterday by Vietnamese Permanent Deputy Foreign Minister Bùi Thanh Sơn at the first session of senior APEC representatives in the coastal Vietnamese city of Nha Trang.

Việt Nam resolutely opposes and rejects China’s new regulations on a fishing break at sea, Foreign Ministry’s spokesman Lê Hải Bình has said. 

Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc attended a flag-raising ceremony on the navy’s two new Kilo-class submarines in the south central coastal province of Khánh Hòa yesterday.

The State visit to Việt Nam by Japanese Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko will be a historical milestone and open a new chapter in the two countries’ friendship and co-operation, says President Trần Đại Quang.