APEC 2017: Committees enter last working day before SOM1 kicks off

As scheduled, there will be three meetings of APEC committees on March 1, including the SOM Steering Committee on ECOTECH (SCE) Meeting, the SOM Friends of the Chair (FotC) on Connectivity and the Policy Support Unit (PSU) Meeting.

In the afternoon, APEC Secretariat Executive Director Dr Alan Bollard and APEC Policy Support Unit Director Dr Denis Hew will have a meeting with the media to share their views on the context for the SOM1 and discuss the outlook for policy collaboration between Vietnam and other APEC economies moving forward.

Being held in Nha Trang city, the south central coastal province of Khanh Hoa, from February 18 to March 3, the APEC SOM1 and related meetings consist of 56 meetings, workshops and dialogues of 38 APEC committees and working groups.

Under the theme of “Creating New Dynamism, Fostering a Shared Future,” the delegates have been discussing and reaching consensus on priorities and their contents for the 2017 APEC Year on promoting sustainable, innovative and inclusive growth, regional economic connectivity, competitiveness of micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in the digital era, food security, and climate change adaptation.

The APEC forum includes 21 member economies - Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong (China), Indonesia, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Chinese Taipei, Thailand, the United States and Vietnam - which together account for 39 percent of the world’s population and make up 59 percent of the world’s gross domestic product (GDP) and 48 percent of the global trade.