A Voice of Vietnam (VOV) reporter interviewed the Head of Vietnam’s high-level ASEAN delegation, Pham Quang Vinh, on preparations for the summit.

Reporter: There are several days left before ASEAN 16 is held in Hanoi. Could you please elaborate on the preparations being made for the summit?

Mr Vinh:  The theme Vietnam has proposed for the Year of ASEAN Chair is “Towards ASEAN Community: From Vision to Action”. We had consultations with other ASEAN member countries at the Senior Officials Meeting (SOM), which was held in HCM City from March 1-3. At the 16^th ASEAN Summit, three main proposals will be submitted to ASEAN leaders for their approval, including a statement on economic recovery and sustainable development, a statement on coping with climate change and the Chair’s statement on the outcomes of ASEAN 16.

In addition, Vietnam has also prepared an agenda, focusing on implementing the ASEAN Charter towards building an ASEAN community, strengthening communication within ASEAN and boosting ASEAN cooperation to cope with global challenges, particularly economic recovery and climate change. The agenda also underlines the need to enhance ASEAN’s international cooperation with its partners to maintain ASEAN’s central role and promote the bloc’s image.

Reporter:  How have Vietnam’s officials managed to prepare such a large volume of work?

Mr Vinh: In fact, as soon as Vietnam took over ASEAN’s Chairmanship, we started the preparatory work by way of mobilising all our resources from the relevant ministries and sectors. For example, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was responsible for itemising issues and the summit’s contents while the Ministry of Industry and Trade has worked with the Ministries of Economics in the other ASEAN countries to deal with issues related to economics and sustainable development.

In terms of climate change, we have liased closely with the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment to gather the opinions from experts in this field.

Reporter: At this summit, what contents are considered to be on Vietnam’s initiative?

Mr Vinh:  Bringing all the agreements to life to build a united ASEAN can be seen as Vietnam’s initiative. We have formed an agenda with priority on creating an ASEAN Charter and building a united ASEAN community.

Concerning efforts to cope with climate change, Vietnam has put the issue into the main focus of ASEAN meetings and this has been praised by other member countries.

Apart from devising work programmes for ASEAN 16, Vietnam has put together a common programme for 2010 with different topics in line with the theme,” From vision to action”.

Reporter: Thank you so much.