First Senior Officials’ Meeting (SOM 1) to open in Nha Trang

PSNews - With the theme "Creating New Dynamism, Fostering a Shared Future", SOM 1 will focus on proposing initiatives to implement 4 priorities of the APEC 2017 and orienting activities in the APEC Year of 2017.

Nearly 1,500 representatives from the 21 APEC member economies will participate in the 1st Senior Officials’ Meeting (SOM1) and related meetings from February 18th to March 3rd, in Nha Trang, Viet Nam.

Amid changes in the regional and international situation, SOM 1 will play an important role in strengthening APEC's cooperation, contributing to creating a momentum for growth and connectivity of the Asia-Pacific region.

During 14 days of SOM 1, representatives will participate in 56 meetings, workshops, dialogues of 38 committees and working groups of APEC on various fields such as: liberalization of trade and investment, business facilitation, disaster response, human resource development, education and services.

Chairman of the SOM APEC 2017, Permanent Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son, will chair the SOM Friends of the Chair on Connectivity on March 1st and the First Senior Officials' Meeting on March 2nd. In addition, 13 ministries and agencies of Vietnam will directly act as Chairman or Vice-Chairman of APEC's committees and working groups.

With the theme "Creating New Dynamism, Fostering a Shared Future", SOM 1 will focus on proposing initiatives to implement 4 priorities of the APEC 2017 and orienting activities in the APEC Year of 2017.

All meetings will be held at major hotels in Nha Trang. As planned, the Organizing Board will provide shuttle buses to transport delegates and reporters during the meetings.

The resort city will also host a meeting of APEC Deputy Finance Ministers and Deputy Governors of Central Banks of the APEC member economies on February 23th-24th. 
By Linh Bui

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