Australia was watching how Vietnam would host the APEC Vietnam 2006 to gain experience and design the theme for the 2007 summit to be hosted by Australia, said Australian ambassador to Vietnam Bill Tweddell at a press conference in Hanoi on November 3, 2006, about the participation of Australia in the APEC Vietnam 2006.
Can you give us some information about the Australian delegation to the APEC Vietnam 2006?
Prime Minister John Howard will lead a delegation consisting of Minister for Foreign Affairs Alexander Downer, Minister for Trade Warren Truss and between 120 and 130 delegates, including many Australian businessmen. We have a bigger delegation to this year’s summit than the previous years because of the importance of the content of the event. Moreover, next year, we will host APEC 2007, so many officials from the working group for the organisation of the APEC 2007 will arrive in Hanoi to learn from Vietnam’s experience.
What is the biggest expectation of the Australian delegation at the APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting Week?
APEC Vietnam has made efforts to promote trade liberalisation. I would like to mention the issue, which was said by the Vietnamese Government via comments by Vietnamese deputy trade minister Luong Van Tu, about how to break the deadlock of the WTO Doha round.
We expect to discuss about how to facilitate further businessmen’s travel and other issues, such as the fight against terrorism, natural disaster and epidemic prevention within the region. In particular, we hope to see the co-operation in bird flu prevention will be discussed and raised to a new height.
How do you think Vietnam would benefit from a successful hosting of the 14th APEC Vietnam 2006?
I would like to pass the question to Vietnamese officials, who will make comments on Vietnam’s benefits from the hosting such an important event. For me, having witnessed the preparation and organisation of the event, as a Hanoian, I have been very happy with changes for the better in the city’s scene.
I suppose that the hosting of the important event will be an opportunity for Vietnamese enterprises and businessmen to attract attention from the world business community, creating a new driving force for the development of business activities. Vietnam is hosting the APEC 2006 amid tensions in trade talks and this may be an important presence of Vietnam to prove that Vietnam is a reliable business destination.
Can you tell us about the theme of APEC 2007 and its relationship with this year’s APEC 2006?
We hope to develop our own theme based on what you have highlighted as well as the success of settling of the issues within the framework of this year’s APEC 2006. I think it is still impossible to talk about the 2007 APEC theme as we are still watching how Vietnam will host the event in the coming days. When issues are settled at the APEC 2006, we will inherit to design the theme for next year’s event.
Reported by Thu Huyen
Vietnamese
