Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Manh Cam will attend the APEC Summit



ANSWERS BY MOFA'S SPOKESWOMAN PHAN THUY THANH
TO FOREIGN CORRESPONDENTS ON 7 NOVEMBER 2000


Itar-Tass correspondent:

- Who will lead the Vietnamese delegation to attend the APEC Summit in Brunei?
- Could you please let me know what questions Vietnam wants to discuss at this Summit?
- During the Summit, does the Vietnamese delegation have meetings with the Russian delegation?

Answer:

Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Manh Cam will lead a Vietnamese delegation to attend the 8th Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit to be held in Brunei, from 15 to 16 November, 2000.

This year's summit will focus its discussion on many important issues, including globalisation and its relation with information and telecommunication technology, e-commerce and the new economy. The Economic and Technological Cooperation Programmes (ECOTECH), which includes human resource development, capacity building, technical assistance, expansion of medium- and small-sized enterprises , will be touched upon.

The summit will continue discussing directions for cooperation in implementing Viet Nam's initiative on building a legal framework guidelining the realization of e-commerce, which was adopted in the 3rd APEC senior official meeting (SOM III) in September, 2000. In light of this event, we welcome "Japan's Comprehensive Co-operation Package to Address the International Digital Divide" put forth at the G8 Summit in Okinawa to assist developing countries in building an information network and e-commerce within 5 years. Viet Nam supports the position affirmed by APEC Trade Minister Meeting held in Darwin (Australia) in June 2000, whereby, APEC should reiterate its commitment to support those APEC member economies, which are not yet WTO members, to soon join this organisations under the conditions comparable with their respective specific circumstances.

At present, bilateral meetings between the Vietnamese delegation and others are being arranged.