Hanoi (VNA) - The first meeting ofthe ASEAN senior economic officials for the fifty first ASEAN EconomicMinisters’ Meeting (SEOM 1/51) was held in Hanoi from January 12 to 14.

The Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Tradechaired the event which saw the participation of representatives from otherministries such as foreign affairs, finance, transport, science-technology,information and communications, agriculture and rural development, planning andinvestment, and the State Bank of Vietnam.

Senior economic officials of the Association ofSoutheast Asian Nations (ASEAN) members, and representatives from the ASEANSecretariat were also present at the event.

Based on the theme of the ASEAN Year 2020“Cohesive and Responsive”, Vietnam put forth three priority orientations under theASEAN economic pillar: promoting intra-bloc economic integration andconnectivity, intensifying partnerships for peace and sustainable development,and enhancing the bloc’s adaptive capacity and operational efficiency.

In order to implement the theme and prioritiesof ASEAN in 2020, Vietnam built 14 specific initiatives, priorities andspecific cooperation plans for discussion, consultation and agreement with the ASEANmember states at the first meeting.

Vietnam’s initiatives were highly appreciated byother ASEAN countries as they help ensure that ASEAN will continue cooperationin 2020 and the following years to accelerate the process of establishing theASEAN Economic Community as scheduled by ASEAN leaders, thus strengthening thebloc’s central position in the regional and global economic cooperationframeworks.

During SEOM 1/51, participants discussed reportsof specialised working groups on portfolio of goods, services, investment,trade facilitation, quality standards, small-and medium-sized enterprises, andrules of origin.

They also proposed solutions to addressingrestrictions while implementing the ASEAN Trade in Goods Agreement (ATIGA) betweenASEAN member nations, as well as ASEAN’s cooperation priorities with partners,directions to speed up the signing of the Regional Cooperation EconomicPartnership (RCEP) agreement, and the accession of Timor Leste.

Founded in 1967, the Association of SoutheastAsian Nations (ASEAN) groups 10 member countries, namely Brunei, Cambodia,Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand andVietnam./.