Vietnam attaches importance to APEC cooperation

Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Ha Kim Ngoc was speaking at a reception for Dr. Rebecca Sta Maria, executive director of the Secretariat of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Hanoi on July 25.

Ngoc thanked the APEC Secretariat and Dr. Sta Maria personally for supporting Vietnam in hosting APEC 2006 and 2017 as well as implementing many capacity building projects in various fields. such as human resource development, women empowerment, and capacity building for micro, small and medium sized enterprises.

Dr. Rebecca Sta Maria highly appreciated Vietnam’s role and contributions to APEC over the past 20 years, as well as its initiatives to promote important cooperation contents, especially in building and implementing the APEC Vision to 2040.

Both host and guest agreed to enhance cooperation between Vietnam and the APEC Secretariat in implementing appropriate projects, and supporting Vietnam in training multilateral foreign affairs officers.

Exchanging views on regional and global challenges, the two sides stressed the need to enhance APEC’s role in supporting post-pandemic economic recovery in member countries, promoting regional economic linkages, strengthening a resilient supply chain, facilitating free and open trade and investment, ensuring food security, and supporting a multilateral trading system.

On the same day, Dr. Sta Maria had working sessions with the APEC Research Center, the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam and a number of Vietnamese agencies and businesses about APEC’s cooperation and orientation in 2022.

Dr. Rebecca Sta Maria is in Vietnam for the third meeting of the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) which is scheduled to open in Ha Long city on July 27. State President Nguyen Xuan Phuc is expected to deliver a speech at the opening ceremony.