Vietnam will speed up activities to contribute to the APEC reform process - one of the issues to be discussed at the third Senior Officials' Meeting (SOM III), said a Vietnamese official at a press briefing in central Da Nang city on September 5.

Nguyen Quoc Dung, Special Assistant to APEC 2006 SOM Chair, said Vietnam will put forth proposals for the reform process, including those on the reform of the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) Secretariat, as well as the statutes of working groups and the APEC agenda in order to increase the effectiveness, integrity and dynamism of the forum.

He affirmed that the approval of a report on APEC reform with practical measures will be the most important result of the Year of APEC 2006 hosted by Vietnam.

Also at the press briefing, Nguyen Thanh Chau, deputy head of Vietnam's APEC Secretariat, revealed that SOM III and related meetings, which are scheduled for Da Nang city and Hoi An town from September 6-17, will address issues left from SOM I and SOM II with the aim of reaching agreement before submitting them to the APEC Ministerial Meeting (AMM) and the Informal APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting (AELM) in Hanoi in November.

SOM III will also touch upon matters related to economics, trade, economic-technical co-operation and human security, he added. (VNA)