The 4th Meeting of ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) and the 42nd ASEAN Economic Ministers Meeting (AEM) and Related Meetings will take place on August 22-28 in the central city of Da Nang. Under the theme “AEC: A Community for Dynamic and Sustainable Growth”, the AEM-42 affirms ASEAN’s commitments towards both economic growth and a balanced, stable and sustainable development.
The theme also matches with ASEAN 2010 theme of ”Towards the ASEAN Community: From Vision to Action” and ASEAN leaders’ Statement on Sustained Recovery and Development proposed by Vietnam at the 16th ASEAN Summit in April this year in Hanoi.
The events are expected to lure the participation of 18 Economic Ministers from ASEAN member states and eight partners, namely China, the Republic of Korea, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, India, the EU and Russia. As the Chairman of the AEC and AEM, Vietnamese Minister of Industry and Trade Vu Huy Hoang will preside over these meetings.
Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Cam Tu said: “AEM-42 is the most important annual event of the ASEAN Economic Pillar in 2010. On this occasion, ASEAN and dialogue partners’ economic ministers will assess the implementation of free trade agreements, discuss measures to speed up negotiations of new trade agreements and define future cooperation between ASEAN and its dialogue partners in the following years”.
The AEM-42 and its related meetings will provide a good opportunity for ASEAN economic leaders to discuss specific measures to promote ASEAN economic cooperation towards the establishment of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) by 2015. The outcomes of the AEM-42 will be reported to the AEC-4 and from which they will then be submitted to the 17th ASEAN Summit scheduled for Hanoi in October, said Mr Tu.
It is reported that the year of 2010 marks an important milestone in realizing the AEC goal. Especially, major agreements of ASEAN like the ASEAN Trade in Goods Agreement (ATIGA), the ASEAN Comprehensive Investment Agreement (ACIA), the seventh package of service commitments under the ASEAN Framework Agreement on Services (AFAS) came into effect. In addition, ASEAN will speed up various cooperation programs such as the ASEAN Single Window (ASW), as well as programs on trade facilitation and enterprise engagement in regional integration.
Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Cam Tu said that as the host country, Vietnam has proposed some initiatives for cooperation such as expanding dialogues with businesses in regional policy making process, conducting the first consultation with economic ministers of Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam (CLMV) with the aim of narrowing the development gap between CLMV and other faster developed ASEAN nations.
Huong Ly
Vietnamese
