Vietnam’s hosting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in 2017 is a good chance for the country to promote the image of a dynamic country in reform and international integration.

The theme “Creating New Dynamism, Fostering A Shared Future” that Vietnam selected for the APEC 2017, which was announced by President Tran Dai Quang at the 24th APEC Summit in Lima, Peru, on November 19-20, 2016, received support from all member economies, the business community and leading experts.

Executive Director of the APEC Secretariat, Alan Bollard praised Vietnam’s role in hosting the event.

“It is a challenging year for Vietnam to be hosting. We are pleased with that you have picked up that challenge. The Peru Summit sent a message of unanimous agreement on the movement of globalization. We expect to see Vietnam leading further work on the way that APEC goes forward, which is voluntary consensus and incremental. We are not a legally-binding institution like TPP. And we expect some of those will happen with the work program for the free trade area for Asia and Pacific,” said Mr Bollard.

The theme also demonstrated the common long-term goal of the forum, which are peace, stability, development and prosperity, and at the same time showed expectation of new developments of the forum in 2017, thus contributing to affirming the forum’s position in the new circumstances.

Vietnam’s hosting of the APEC Year represents Vietnam’s key foreign relations objective and its determination in international integration. By hosting the forum, Vietnam hopes it can make practical contributions to APEC’s development and increase the efficiency of APEC cooperation, while boosting the country’s partnership with other member economies.

“The APEC Year 2017 will be a chance for us to show our economic image of renovation, dynamism with abundant potential and active mindset in international integration. This will promote the image of Vietnamese peace-loving and friendship where local businesses and people could contribute to APEC cooperation for practical benefits,” said Deputy Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son./.

VNF