VIETNAM: Preparations for the weekend Asia-Pacific (APEC) summit

Vietnam's capital city is gearing up on Monday (November 13, 2006) to welcome world leaders from 19 Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) nations for a weekend Asia-Pacific summit that also marks the nation's coming-out party. Vietnam is simultaneously hosting the APEC summit and making its debut on the world stage with approval to become the newest member of the World Trade Organisation by year-end. Asia-Pacific nations are set to approve a series of measures to fight terrorism in a region that boasts some of the world's highest growth rates, Vietnam's deputy foreign minister said on Monday. Achieving a consensus among the 21 nations of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum on the measure was not easy, said Deputy Foreign Minister Le Cong Phung, who chaired a conference of senior officials preparing for this week's APEC meetings in Hanoi. Senior officials approved the report of an APEC Special Task Force on Counter-Terrorism, Phung said in a statement at the end of their two-day conference. South Korea's Park Sang-ki will be the new chairman of the special task force for the next two years Its membership in the WTO is tribute to the country's economic success. Preparations for the weekend APEC summit are well underway - with security stepping up around the imposing new glass and concrete National Convention Centre, which cost 260 million USD, in a suburb of Hanoi. It will be the largest international event hosted in the history of Communist-run Vietnam. APEC says its 21 members account for nearly half of global trade, 40 percent of the world's population and 56 percent of the world's gross domestic product. The summit will discuss implementing a free trade and investment pact among APEC members that was first articulated at the Bogor, Indonesia meeting in 1994.

ITN Source | November 13, 2006

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