The conference was attended by Senior Leaders and Heads of Delegation from 21 APEC member economies, including Brunei, Canada, Chile, Taipei (China), the United States, Indonesia, South Korea, Hong Kong (China), Malaysia, Mexico, Russia, New Zealand, Japan, Australia, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Thailand, China, Singapore and Vietnam. The Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) attended as a guest. President Vo Van Thuong led the Vietnamese high-ranking delegation to the conference.
With the theme “Connecting and Building Inclusive and Resilient Economies”, the Conference reviewed APEC’s 30-year cooperation journey since the first Summit at Blake Island, USA (1993-2023), and discussed cooperation orientations in the new period.
The Leaders also shared their assessments of the world economic situation, challenges and opportunities facing the Asia-Pacific region.
The conference highly appreciated APEC's important contributions to promoting global economic growth over the past decades; affirmed that APEC needs to continue to be a key driving force for economic growth in a world facing many risks.
APEC needs to promote the achievements and lessons of the past three decades, continue to promote the implementation of the APEC Vision 2040 on an open, dynamic, resilient and peaceful Asia-Pacific community for the prosperity of its people and future generations.
On trade, investment and connectivity cooperation, the Leaders committed to promoting a free, open, transparent and inclusive trade and investment environment, maintaining open markets and addressing supply chain disruptions.
APEC continues to support the rules-based multilateral trading system with the World Trade Organization (WTO) at its core.
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| Overview of APEC 2023 Conference. |
The conference emphasized the importance of building a non-discriminatory digital ecosystem for businesses and consumers; agreed to accelerate the implementation of the APEC Internet Economy/Digital Economy Roadmap, especially in the areas of data security, cloud computing, telecommunications networks, e-commerce and promoting an innovative environment.
Determined to promote the agenda of sustainable and inclusive development, the Conference agreed to reduce and eventually eliminate fossil fuel subsidies, accelerate the clean energy transition to achieve the global goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to zero.
The conference adopted major principles on equitable energy transition and food security in APEC cooperation, the Framework and Action Plan on Disaster Risk Reduction; agreed to accelerate the implementation of the Circular Bio-Green Economy Model; and integrate sustainability and inclusiveness into APEC activities.
The Leaders agreed that more efforts are needed to improve people's quality of life; expand access to health and education services, promote gender equality, and empower women, ethnic minorities, and rural communities in remote and isolated areas.
Speaking at the conference, President Vo Van Thuong emphasized that APEC is the leading regional cooperation and connectivity forum, bringing practical benefits to the people. From APEC's success, three lessons can be drawn for the future.
Firstly , the openness and goodwill of all parties to understand and overcome differences, find common ground and promote common interests. Secondly, the vision and strategic thinking of generations of Leaders have positioned the right role of Asia-Pacific and APEC; and thirdly, the support and companionship of the business community and people.
Regarding APEC's operational direction, the President emphasized, firstly , maintaining and consolidating important achievements in liberalization and facilitation of trade and investment in Asia-Pacific and globally.
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| President Vo Van Thuong speaks at the Conference. |
Second , create a cooperation framework to support member economies to take advantage of development opportunities and promote growth momentum. APEC needs to focus on improving capacity, autonomy, creativity and application of science and technology, while building infrastructure, developing human resources, and digital and green transformation models.
Third , cooperation to build a resilient region, each economy is resilient, ready to respond to challenges. The President also made it clear that more than ever, APEC members need to be open, sincere, and have constructive dialogue to increase understanding, narrow differences, and create consensus.
The President emphasized that after exactly 25 years of joining APEC, with the desire to continue contributing to the APEC process, Vietnam proposed to host the activities of APEC Year 2027. APEC Leaders highly appreciated and strongly supported Vietnam's proposal and agreed to include it in the Joint Statement of the Conference.
The 30th APEC Summit ended successfully. The Leaders unanimously adopted the Golden Gate Declaration “Creating a Sustainable and Resilient Future for All”, affirming APEC’s leadership role as well as its position as a leading forum for economic cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region.
The Leaders agreed to meet at the APEC Summit in 2024 in Peru and in 2025 in the Republic of Korea.
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