(VNA) – The High Level Task Force on ASEAN Economic Integration held their 23rd meeting in Kualar Lumpur, Malaysia on Friday with nearly 50 delegates from 10 ASEAN countries participating.

The Vietnamese delegation led by Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Cam Tu attended the event.  The participants focused on ASEAN economic integration and reviewed the task force’s operational regulations. They discussed issues relating to the ASEAN Economic Community, management reform and trade facilitation. They also discussed the further consolidation of the role of the ASEAN Secretariat. The idea of building an AEC, one of the three key pillars of the ASEAN Community, was initiated at the 9th ASEAN Summit in October, 2003. It is scheduled to launch in 2015, forming a stable, prosperous and highly competitive region with equitable economic development, decreasing poverty and socio-economic disparities, and the free flow of goods, services, investment and capital by 2020.