Senior officials from 21 member economies of the Asia-Pacific Economic
Cooperation (APE) agreed in Hanoi Monday to submit to APEC leaders
later this week several documents, including those on bird flu, finance,
enterprises and tourism prepared at ministerial meetings this year.
Besides endorsing the Hanoi Action Plan which offers details required to
implement the Busan Roadmap towards APEC Bogor goals, and a reform package, the
Concluding Senior Officials Meeting agreed to propose the 14th APEC Economic
Leaders' Meeting slated for Nov. 18-19 in Hanoi approve outcomes of the four
ministerial meetings on bird flu, finance, small-and medium enterprises (SMEs)
and tourism.
The outcomes include "long-term strategies and concrete cooperation programs"
important to the development of the Asia-Pacific region as well as the world, Le
Cong Phung, deputy Vietnamese foreign minister and chair of the two-day senior
officials meeting, told a press conference after the senior officials meeting.
The ministerial meeting on avian and human flu pandemics in May in Vietnam's
central Da Nang city adopted the APEC Action Plan on the prevention and response
to avian and human flu pandemics, under which APEC economies have committed to
beefing up cooperation with each other in five key areas.
The areas include multi-sectoral cooperation and coordination on avian and
human flu pandemics, establishing best practices and common approaches to risk
communications, mitigating negative effects of avian influenza on agriculture
and trade, working with the private sector to help ensure continuity of
business, trade and essential services, and strengthening regional and
international cooperation.
Under the bird flu action plan, the member economies have agreed to take
series of specific actions, including strengthening cooperation between animal
and human health laboratory and surveillance networks, integrating risk
communications as part of domestic and regional pandemic preparedness planning.
The actions also include conducting assessments on the impact of avian
influenza mitigation and control and the consequences for agriculture.
At the 13th APEC Finance Ministers' Meeting in September in Hanoi, APEC
economies stressed the importance of open, adequately supervised, and robust
sound financial services sectors.
The main efforts are urged to promote public finance efficiency and
sustainability for stable and efficient revenue sources.
APEC economies emphasized the importance of open, well-supervised, and
systematically sound financial services.
They re-affirmed their commitment in 2005 to international standards set
forth by the Financial Action Task Force to combat terrorist financing, money
laundering, and other abuses of financial systems.
The Hanoi Declaration on Strengthening SME Competitiveness for Trade and
Investment issued at the 13th APEC Small and Medium Enterprises Ministerial
Meeting in September in Hanoi outlines specific measures to improve
competitiveness, innovation and entrepreneurship in the Asia-Pacific region.
The measures included enhancing capacity building for enterprises and
officials in order to enable firms to take advantage of trade liberalization;
undertaking domestic reforms such as enhancing the legal and regulatory
framework; and implementing the rule of law, cutting down on bureaucracy,
investing in infrastructure, removing gender biases, improving labor conditions
and fighting corruption.
In the Hoi An Declaration on Promoting APEC Tourism Cooperation adopted at
the 4th APEC Tourism Ministerial Meeting in October in central Quang Nam
province, member economies appreciated initiatives aimed at materializing the
priorities set for APEC tourism cooperation.