Some 2,000 domestic and international delegates are expected to attend the second APEC Senior Officials Meeting (SOM 2) and related meetings scheduled to take place in Hà Nội and Ninh Bình province from May 9-21. – Photo baocongthuong.com.vn

HÀ NỘI – Some 2,000 domestic and international delegates are expected to attend the second APEC Senior Officials Meeting (SOM 2) and related meetings scheduled to take place in Hà Nội and Ninh Bình province from May 9-21, heard a press briefing yesterday.
To date, about 250 local reporters and 200 foreign journalists have also signed up to cover the events, organisers said.
SOM 2 will comprise 49 meetings, workshops and dialogues of committees and working groups of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Forum, covering a range of spheres such as trade and investment liberalisation, business facilitation, human resource development, education, network economy, food safety, science, technology and creativity, mining, automobile industry and urbanisation.
At the events, APEC delegates are expected to push long-term co-operation programmes and plans in key areas and reach consensus on documents to be submitted to ministers for approval, laying a foundation for contents of the APEC Economic Leaders Meeting and APEC Ministerial Meeting in central Da Nang city in November 2017.
A multilateral dialogue on APEC towards 2020 and beyond, a high-level policy dialogue on human Resource development in the digital age, a Pacific Economic Cooperation Council meeting, a Senior Finance Officials Meeting and the 23rd Ministers Responsible for Trade Meeting will also be held on this occasion.
Since its inception in 1989, APEC has become a leading economic co-operation mechanism in Asia-Pacific, focusing on trade and investment liberalisation, business facilitation and economic-technological co-operation.
APEC groups 21 member economies, Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong (China), Indonesia, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Chinese Taipei, Thailand, the US and Viet Nam, which together account for 39 per cent of the world’s population and 59 per cent of global GDP and 48 per cent of global trade.
Việt Nam joined APEC in November 1998, marking a milestone in its foreign policy of openness, multilateralisation and diversification of relations and international economic integration.
Since then, the country has contributed to APEC co-operation. The country hosted the APEC Year 2006, in which the 14th APEC Economic Leaders Meeting endorsed the Hà Nội Action Plan to implement the Busan Roadmap towards the Bogor Goals, approved measures to enhance the efficiency of APEC co-operation and set out long-term prospects to form the Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific. In 2014, Viet Nam also organised the 6th APEC Human Resources Development Ministerial Meeting.
Việt Nam has recommended and joined many new initiatives alongside with proposing and carrying out more than 100 projects related to trade, investment, economic-technological co-operation, small- and medium-sized enterprises, response to emergency, healthcare, food security and counter-terrorism. — VNS