President on tight schedule at APEC summit week

President Truong Tan Sang continued his busy schedule in Manila, the Philippines, on November 18 as part of the 23rd Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) summit week.

President Truong Tan Sang meets with Chief Executive of China’s Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Leung Chun-ying. (Credit: VNA)

He joined other leaders of the 21 APEC member economies at the official welcoming ceremony hosted by Philippine President Benigno Aquino III in the afternoon.

Later, the APEC leaders had a dialogue with members of the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC). President Truong Tan Sang, New Zealand Prime Minister John Key, Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla and US Trade Representative Michael Froman co-chaired a dialogue group that gathered ABAC member businesses.

They discussed measures on enhancing public-private partnership to promote facilitation of trade, investment, sustainable and inclusive growth and services development.

The Vietnamese President affirmed that Vietnam has continually attached importance to the successful realisation of the Bogor Goals on trade and investment liberalisation. He also underlined Vietnam’s concerted efforts to ensure equal growth for all people, especially disadvantaged and vulnerable groups and small and medium-sized enterprises.

Also in the afternoon, President Sang attended the first-ever informal dialogue between the APEC leaders with the Pacific Alliance, which gathers four Latin American economies (Peru, Mexico, Chile and Colombia).

Addressing the dialogue, which was an initiative of the Philippines, President Truong Tan Sang voiced his support of increased coordination between APEC and the Pacific Alliance, adding that Vietnam is willing to join hands with other APEC members in boosting co-operation and effective coordination with other multilateral mechanisms, including the Alliance and the ASEAN Community. He proposed several specific fields that the two sides should consider for their partnership.

On the same day, the President held bilateral meetings with the President of Peru, the Prime Minister of Malaysia and the Chief Executive of China’s Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

President Sang and his Peruvian counterpart Ollanta Humala expressed delight at progress in the country’s friendship and co-operation.

The Vietnamese leader said both countries should put the inter-governmental committee on economic and technical co-operation into operation as soon as possible and conduct negotiations on a framework agreement on trade and investment.

The two sides agreed to share experiences in order to effectively carry out commitments in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement once the deal takes effect.

They vowed mutual support and close coordination to successfully organise APEC events to be held in Peru in 2016 and in Vietnam the following year.

Meeting with Malaysian PM Najib Razak, President Truong Tan Sang hailed the year of 2015 as a milestone in the countries’ relations with the establishment of the bilateral strategic partnership.

PM Najib Razak thanked Vietnam for supporting and working closely with his country in fulfilling the latter’s mission in the run up to the establishment of the ASEAN Community.

Talking with Chief Executive of China’s Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Leung Chun-ying, President Truong Tan Sang rejoiced at the strong growth of bilateral co-operation in economics, investment, tourism, education, and people-to-people exchanges, along with the comprehensive strategic co-operative partnership between Vietnam and China.

(Source: nhandan.org.vn)