Cementing Excellent Ties
By Hadi DP Mahmud

Hanoi - His Majesty Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Mu'izzaddin Waddaulah, Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam yesterday met with Nguyen Tan Dung, Prime Minister of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

In the meeting which was held at the Prime Minister's office, His Majesty thanked Tan Dung for the hospitality accorded to His Majesty and delegation and congratulated the Prime Minister for hosting this year's Apec Summit Meeting.

His Majesty and the Prime Minister were pleased to note the excellent relations that exist between Brunei Darussalam and Vietnam.

Among the issues discussed in the meeting were efforts to enhance the relationship between the two countries in areas such as trade, investment and labour.

Present at the talk were also Pehin Orang Kaya Seri Utama Dato Seri Setia Awang Yahya Begawan Mudim Dato Paduka Haji Bakar, Minister of Energy at the Prime Minister's office and Pehin Orang Kaya Pekerma Dewa Dato Seri Setia Lim Jock Seng, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade II.

In the afternoon, His Majesty held meetings with the secretary general of the Communist Party, Nong Duc Manh. This was followed by another meeting with Vietnam President Nguyen Minh Triet.

In those meetings, the leader of the two nations reaffirmed their commitment to strengthen cooperation both at the bilateral and Asean level.

Meanwhile, over 1,100 representatives from leading multi-national corporations in the Asia-Pacific region gathered here, kicking off the two-day Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum's CEO Summit.

The summit is considered the biggest event of the business community of the region in 2006.

The event, annually organised along with the Apec Economic Leaders' Meeting since 1996, has become an important forum for leaders, businessmen, policy makers and researchers to share experiences and propose suggestions and solutions for strengthening economic cooperation within the region and between the Apec member economies with the rest of the world.

Apec Economic Leaders' Meeting Chair Nguyen Minh Triet delivered an opening speech themed "Creating an Asia-Pacific Community: Challenges for Apec" at the event.

He said: "The leaders of Apec member economies will endorse the Hanoi Action Plan to implement the Busan Roadmap towards the Bogor Goals, expedite trade and investment liberalisation and facilitation, create the most favourable settings for business, strengthen technical cooperation, ensure the people's welfare and business safety, narrow down the development gap, especially the digital gap, and reform Apec cooperation mechanism towards improving operational efficiency."

Addressing the opening session, Vu Tien Loc, chairman of Vietnam chamber of commerce and industry, who chairs the CEO summit, said this year's meeting is significant because it takes place at a time when new challenges are facing Apec's vision of an economic community of free and open trade and investment.

Loc cited the suspension of the Doha round of WTO negotiations at the global stage and lack of uniformity of regional, sub-regional and bilateral trade arrangements within Asia-Pacific, as well as the challenges of terrorism, pandemics, natural disasters and technological inequality which threaten the sustainability of regional prosperity.

"Within this context, the Apec CEO Summit, which has brought together over 1,000 business leaders and 12 Apec leaders, presents a timely opportunity for discussion on the nature of these challenges and the responses necessary to deal with these challenges," he said.

Presidents and prime ministers of the Apec economies who have been invited to attend the event on the first day and deliver speeches to the business executives include Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet, Chinese President Hu Jintao, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. -- Courtesy of The Brunei Times

Click Here To Have Your Say On This Story

Brudirect.com News

Brunei's Fastest Growing Website with