The Second Senior Official Meeting (SOM II) will open in the southern economic hub of Ho Chi Minh City from May 22-30 with the attendances of 1,500 domestic and foreign representatives.
The conference and also 19 related meetings are the preparatory activities for the gathering of the trade ministers of member countries, organized right after, from June 1-2.
The SOM II will discuss highlighted issues, including contributions of APEC to the World Trade Organization (Doha round talks), the Busan action plan, and the Bogor target, which will be passed at the Hanoi Summit in upcoming November.
Besides, the second meeting will focus on regional trade agreements, free trade agreements, trade promotion activities and cooperation on economic, technique among countries in APEC.
Also, other issues such as anti-terrorism, anti-corruption, health and energy security, culture, tourism and biotechnology will be discussed during the series of meeting.
The news sources reported that Ho Chi Minh City, the economic hub of Vietnam, is busily preparing for the event, it is recruiting 150 student volunteers.
Especially, numerous activities to introduce tourism and the culture of the city will be organized on the occasion.
The First Senior Official Meeting (SOM I) themed “Towards a Dynamic Community for Sustainable Development and Prosperity” concluded early last month.
The APEC summit 2006, hosted by Vietnam for the first time, is slated to be attended by all leaders of the organization, including US President Bush, Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi, and Chinese ruling Party Secretary General Hu Jintao.
Founded in November 1989, APEC now has 21 member economies. Vietnam joined the organization at the APEC Foreign-Economic Ministers Meeting in November 1998.
Over the past six years, the number of Vietnam’s cooperation projects within the framework of APEC has been on the rise, focusing on new areas such as competitive policy, intellectual property, biotechnology, e-commerce and information technology.
International Affairs
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