President Nguyen Xuan Phuc (Photo: Thong Nhat/VNA)

The informal meeting of APEC leaders discussed the response to the COVID-19 pandemic and opportunities for Asia-Pacific to cooperate to overcome the health crisis, accelerate economic recovery, and lay the foundation for a better future.

Global efforts to fight pandemic

As the global economy continues to face COVID-19 challenges, joint efforts to respond to the pandemic have been stepped upby producing, distributing, and administering vaccines. Countries are giving high priority to post-COVID-19 recovery, digital transformation, green growth, circular economy, high-quality infrastructure development, and renewable energy.

APEC 2021, chaired by New Zealand, focuses on three key points: Join, Work, Grow. Together. This encompasses economic and trade policy to promote economic recovery, sustainable and inclusive recovery, and innovation and digitization.

APEC's cooperation continues to be valued by its members and has affirmed its leading role in promoting economic links. However, APEC cooperation also faces many challenges. The increase in superpower competition, the strong development of new cooperation frameworks, and the gathering of new forces in the Indo-Pacific makes it difficult to reach consensus and honor breakthrough commitments. This has required APEC to innovate and improve operational efficiency to keep cooperation momentum.

Vietnam’s practical initiatives

APEC is the leading economic cooperation mechanism in the Asia-Pacific, where major global economic, trade, and technology centers converge. APEC accounts for 39% of the global population, contributes 59% of global GDP, and more than 49% of global trade. APEC has produced strategic economic benefits and contributed to Vietnam’s comprehensive development.

15 of 31 key partners of Vietnam are APEC members. 13 of 17 Free Trade Agreements (FTA) Vietnam has signed are with APEC members. 17 of 20 APEC members are Vietnam’s FTA partners.

During its 22-year membership in APEC, Vietnam has made contributions to the forum, promoting regional peace, stability, cooperation and economic integration and maintaining APEC’s role as a leading economic linkage mechanism in Asia-Pacific. Vietnam is one of the few members that have hosted APEC twice, in 2006 and 2017.

Vietnam is one of the most active participants as it has proposed more than 100 projects across multiple sectors. Many of Vietnam’s initiatives have been deemed as practical, addressing shared concerns in inclusive development, human resource development in the digital era, facilitation of cross-border e-commerce, green, sustainable, and innovative micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs), food security, and climate change, and rural and urban development.

As Vice Chair of the APEC Vision Group, Vietnam has led and coordinated the compilation of a Recommendation Report titled "People and Prosperity: APEC Vision to 2040."

As the COVID-19 pandemic profoundly affects all economic, political and social aspects, Vietnam has coordinated with other APEC members to maintain cooperation momentum through proposing, crafting, and promoting measures and commitments to APEC's cooperation in pandemic response and sustainable economic recovery. Vietnam has participated in building long-term cooperation strategies within APEC such as the APEC Vision Implementation Plan to 2040.