President Nguyen Minh Triet on November 14 attended the first Retreat Session of the 17th APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting (AELM) in Singapore, with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in the chair.

Focusing on trade issues under the theme of “Connecting the Region”, the APEC Leaders resolved to inject a strong political push to conclude the Doha Round of WTO negotiations by the end of 2010. In a robust defence of free trade, they also reiterated their commitment to reject all forms of protectionism.

They underlined the need to step up efforts to realise APEC’s long-term vision of a Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP) by laying the necessary building blocks and exploring possible pathways.

In this regard, several leaders highlighted the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement (TPP) as a possible pathway. They welcomed US President Barack Obama’s announcement that the US will engage in the TPP and work towards a broad-based and high-quality agreement.

They shared the view that the world economy is showing signs of recovery and that APEC economies should join hands to achieve strong, stable and sustainable growth.

The leaders also agreed that apart from traditional trade and investment liberalisation, APEC should focus on new areas like regulatory reform and connectivity and take a more practical approach to connect regional markets.

Some leaders suggested enhancing regional connectivity by improving cross-border transport linkages of all forms – including land, air and sea connectivity. Others highlighted the need to focus more on structural reforms to raise productivity and enhance the region’s economic competitiveness. They noted that the recent initiative to cut the costs of doing business in the APEC region by 25 percent by 2015 was a timely and important one.

APEC leaders spoke of the importance of bridging the development gap among economies and strengthening capacity building efforts toward that end. Others suggested that APEC broaden its agenda to meet new challenges such as closing the digital divide and enhancing human and cooking security.

VietNamNet/VOV