Vietnamese President Nguyen Xuan Phuc attends a virtual informal meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leaders. (photo: VNA)

He told the meeting on Friday that the COVID-19 pandemic is still evolving with complexities while the endurance of the people and businesses has its limit. This is the time when economies need to overcome differences, unite to overcome the crisis and stabilize people's lives, reset the world economy, and move on to a sustainable and inclusive development trajectory. On that note, President Phuc proposed three areas of APEC cooperation.

“First, as APEC is home to many of the world’s top vaccine production and supply centers, we need to step up regional cooperation in technology transfer, capacity building for research, and production of vaccines. Accordingly, we should look into the possibility of establishing a temporary APEC waiver of certain intellectual property protections on COVID-19 vaccines,” said Mr. Phuc.

Second, he recommended developing an APEC guideline on sustaining supply chains during emergencies to maintain the flow of our economies and prevent disruptions of regional and global supply chains as was the case in the past.

And third, with the mantra of “leaving no one behind”, APEC needs to quickly implement cooperation programs and policy coordination on assisting disadvantaged and vulnerable groups, improving the resilience and adaptability of businesses, especially MSMEs, to create more jobs and income, and up-skilling and re-skilling the workforce, and reducing the digital gap between urban and rural areas, and among the people.

Mr. Phuc said Vietnam is making every effort to implement the dual goal of both combating the pandemic and maintaining economic growth. This policy has received the broad support and joint actions of the public.

Vietnam has been able to maintain positive economic growth, social stability and the people’s livelihood. Vietnam will continue to work closely with other members to promote cooperation in the APEC spirit of “Fight the Pandemic, Join, Work, Grow Together”, and towards a brighter future for all.