President Tran Dai Quang (Photo: Nhan Sang/VNA)

To begin with, President Quang wrote that twenty-eight years ago, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum came into being. Ever since, APEC has been growing vigorously, living up to itse role as the region’s premier economic forum. In a globalized and changing world and a dynamic Asia-Pacific, APEC is facing both new opportunities and challenges.

The President said that as the host of APEC 2017, it is Vietnam's mandate to work with other member economies to turn the APEC Economic Leaders’ commitments into tangible results and bring APEC closer to the people and business community, thereby realizing the strategic vision of an Asia-Pacific of sustainable and inclusive development in the 21st century.

 APEC in a changing world

President Tran Dai Quang said that the increasing interdependence and connectivity in the region and the need to address global challenges open up new opportunities for APEC members to foster cooperation and integration. Despite an  international economic slowdown, rising protectionism, widening development gaps, and emerging traditional and non-traditional security challenges, APEC is now in an excellent position to contribute to Asia-Pacific’s role as a driver of global economic growth and integration. With over 150 bilateral and multilateral free trade agreements that APEC members are party to and progress toward establishing a Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP), the region has vast market, technology, and financial resources potential. To turn challenges into opportunities, APEC members will need strong resolve and concrete actions. 

The APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting in Da Nang has an important mission in creating new dynamism for APEC cooperation, integration and growth. This is an opportunity for APEC members to deepen and expand their cooperation toward building an Asia-Pacific partnership of sustainable and inclusive development in the 21st century. 

APEC Vietnam 2017: Fostering a shared future 

According to President Quang, the APEC Economic Leaders will discuss directions for the forum, including: creating new dynamism for sustainable, innovative and inclusive growth of APEC economies; promoting trade and investment liberalization and strengthening regional connectivity; and consolidating APEC’s pioneering role in global economic governance and in tackling shared challenges. 

President Quang stressed the need to discuss the steps taken to develop the post-2020 strategic vision for the forum in order to prepare for APEC’s 4th decade of development. He said this vision needs to uphold APEC’s role as a leader in promoting integration, connectivity, sustainable and inclusive growth, restructuring, the digital economy, education, quality human resources development, and closing development gap.

President Tran Dai Quang concluded by saying that fully aware of the importance of close relations between Vietnam and APEC, Vietnam has always made active and responsible contributions to the work of the forum over the past 20 years. By hosting APEC 2017 Vietnam wishes to reaffirm its foreign policy of diversification, multilateralization of international relations and intensive international integration; being a reliable friend and partner of the international community. Vietnam will continue to work with other APEC members in building a peaceful, stable, dynamic, interconnected, and prosperous Asia-Pacific community.