The third Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) Senior Officials' Meeting (SOM III) closed on September 17 in central Da Nang city after two-week seating.

The SOM III and related meetings achieved all their goals.

In the context of the impasse of the Doha Round with talks temporarily postponed, SOM III participants were unanimous determined to call on economies, particularly those playing important roles, to resume negotiations as soon as possible; to support SOM's submission of this content to the APEC foreign and economic ministers' meeting and the APEC economic leaders' meeting in Hanoi later this year for discussion and decision.

SOM III was unanimous on the special significance of the APEC economic leaders' meeting scheduled for late this year, saying it would possibly help re-start and revive the Doha Round negotiations. In this context, SOM III believed that Vietnam in the role of the host country would make a decisive contribution.

The meeting basically adopted the draft Hanoi action plan to implement the Busan roadmap to achieve the Bogor goals proposed by Vietnam. The Hanoi action plan was seen as very important to the APEC process, helping member economies to effectively implement major orientations in the Busan roadmap approved by APEC leaders in the Republic of Korea last year.

SOM III discussed 14 drafts of model consulting articles for the development of agreements for Regional Trade Area/Free Trade Area (RTA/FTA) among APEC member economies. It agreed to assign the Committee on Trade and Investment (CTI) to study articles in the following nine areas: trading goods, procedures on goods origin, technical barrier for trade, self-protection article, service trade, transparency, settlement of disputes, purchase for government, and co-operation to submit its report to the Concluding Senior Officials Meeting (CSOM) to be held in Hanoi on November 12-13 this year. Around 5-6 articles are expected to be submitted by CSOM to ministers for approval. This will be a concrete and significant result gained in APEC Vietnam 2006.

SOM III adopted the draft Plan of Action on trade facilitation aimed at reducing 5% of transactions during the 2006-10 period.

The meeting spent much time on discussion about APEC reforms. This was the first time that this issue was brought to wide and deep debate with the enthusiastic participation of all member economies. The host country put forth three directions for APEC reform, namely enhancement of "APEC's operational efficiency, alliance and flexibility".

Meetings organised and chaired by Vietnam have attracted great attention from the public, namely the dialogue between APEC customs and businesses, the seminar on investment policy framework between OECD and APEC investment experts, the meeting on gender liaison network, and particularly the workshop on anti-corruption and transparency in APEC.

At the press briefing held after the plenary session, Deputy Foreign Minister Le Cong Phung affirmed that among the achievements made at SOM III, the fact that the APEC-2006 Vietnam ushered in the reforms of APEC was the most important. (VNA)

Member economies agree on APEC reforms

Member economies have reached a consensus on the need to reform APEC to make it more effective and flexible, according to Deputy Foreign Minister and SOM III Chairman, Le Cong Phung.

In an interview with a Vietnam News Agency reporter on September16, Mr Phung also revealed that a number of issues still remained unsolved after officials from APEC member economies tabled the reform agenda.

Participants at the meeting intended to discuss the issues further. The proposed reforms represented a long-term process and the forum would be unable to complete them this year, Mr Phung said.

Asked which issues had still not been agreed on, Mr Phung replied that many of the issues still required further discussion.

The unresolved issues are expected to be decided next November and will then be submitted to the summit conference after a series of bilateral and multilateral meetings and closed talks between the host country and the other economies, he said.

The SOM III session discussed six issues, including the WTO Doha Round impasse, and trade related issues especially bilateral and multilateral free trade areas, the Hanoi action programme to implement the Busan route towards the Bogo goal, and the APEC reforms.

Phung said that the programmes which had been initiated have either been completed or made progress. APEC member economies had all co-operated in the common interests of the organisation. (VNA)