Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam will undertake the role of hosting the Asia-PacificEconomic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders’ Meeting for the second time fromNovember 5-11.

Throughtheme “Creating new dynamism, fostering a shared future”, Vietnam and membereconomies show their wish to contribute to common efforts towards the goal ofbuilding a vibrant and connected Asia-Pacific community via facilitating tradeand investment liberalisation, regional economic connectivity,economic-technical cooperation, ensuring human security and creating afavourable and sustainable business environment.

Sinceits birth in November 1989 with 12 member economies, APEC has so far grouped 21members after nearly 30 years of development, including nine from the G20 Groupof Emerging and Developing Nations and many vibrant economies, representing 2.8billion people, or 39 percent of the world’s population and contributing 43trillion USD, or 57 percent of the gross domestic product and 20 trillion USD,equivalent to 49 percent of the global trade.

Fromthe ministerial-level dialogue mechanism, APEC has become a leading economiccooperation mechanism in the region with outstanding and practical achievementsacross trade and investment liberalisation, trade facilitation, and economicand technical collaboration. As the global economic focus gradually moves tothe Asia-Pacific – the highest growth area and a hub of new technologies andskilled workforce, APEC is recognised as a mechanism guiding trade andinvestment liberalisation, promoting global cooperation trend, making importantcontributions to economic growth and maintaining peace, stability, cooperationand development in the region and the world.

Withthe “initiative raising mechanism”, APEC provides a platform for policymakers,businesses, and scholars to meet annually to discuss initiatives helpingAsia-Pacific economies catch up with constant developments in the region andthe world, particularly in global economy and trade. Many initiativespertaining to integration have been associated with APEC, namely the Asia-Pacificfree trade area in 2006, the growth strategy in 2010, the master plan onconnectivity in 2014, and the roadmap to competitiveness improvement inservices in 2016.

From2000-2015, the region’s total trade value rose 2.5-fold from 6.4 trillion USDto 16.5 trillion USD, nearly 67 percent of which was internal trade. The groupis implementing long-term strategies and plans until 2025 on quality growth,human resources development and innovation.

From1996-2015, the number of free trade and regional trade agreements put intoforce soared from 22 to 152 while 61 agreements were signed by membereconomies.

APECmember economies also took the lead in forming massive free trade agreementssuch as the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the Regional Comprehensive EconomicPartnership, the ASEAN Community towards establishing the Free Trade Area ofthe Asia-Pacific, contributing to strengthening multilateral trade systemwithin the World Trade Organisation framework.

APEC has put forth the economic and technical cooperation(ECOTECH) agenda to support human resources development and improve capacityfor member economies, looking towards equal, balanced and sustainable economicdevelopment in the region and creating the most favourable conditions for theimplementation of action programmes to realise the Bogor goals.

Since 1993, nearly 1,600 joint projects havebeen carried out and each year APEC provides financial support for about 150projects worth 23 million USD.

In a constantly changing world wherenon-traditional security and terrorism emerge as one of the most seriousthreats, APEC has expanded its interest in security and political issues byissuing its own declaration on counter-terrorism and climate change adaptation.

The forum has also adopted a number of initiatives in the fields of aviationsecurity, railway, navigation, food safety, and prevention of natural disastersand diseases, among others.

APEC has successfully built joint activities andaction programmes of each member economy. Meanwhile, member economies need toshow their firm political will and increase mutual trust to developAsia-Pacific into one of the world’s most dynamic investment and tradeliberalisation regions.

Established in 1989, APEC comprises Australia,Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong (China), Indonesia, Japan, the Republicof Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, thePhilippines, Russia, Singapore, Chinese Taipei, Thailand, the US, andVietnam.-VNA