Hanoi (VNA) – Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh informed the press on theoutcomes of two special virtual meetings of ASEAN on responding to the COVID-19pandemic that Vietnam hosted on June 4, as Chair of the ASEAN in 2020.

The Special ASEANEconomic Ministers’ Meeting (AEM) and the Special ASEAN Plus Three EconomicMinisters’ Meeting on COVID-19 response were held to implement the instructionsof ASEAN leaders made in the Joint Statement of the Special ASEAN Plus ThreeSummit on Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) on April 14.

Minister Anhsaid the two meetings have achieved important outcomes on cooperation to copewith and contain the pandemic in the region, contributing to the world’sCOVID-19 fight.

The special AEMmeeting looked into the possibility of establishing a public-privatecooperation mechanism between the economic ministers and the business communityin order to quickly address arising problems, thus creating the best possibleconditions for trade and investment in the region.

The ministersreached consensus on ASEAN continuing to work closely together to maintain andwork toward restoring supply chains in the region, making it the top priorityin economic cooperation in the region in the time ahead.

They sharedupdates on the epidemic situation in ASEAN countries along with their preventionand control plans as well as ASEAN collaboration to minimize the negativeimpact of the pandemic on the population of each country and the region.

As Chair ofASEAN in 2020, Vietnam chaired and coordinated with other ASEAN members tobuild the Hanoi Plan of Action on strengthening ASEAN economic cooperation andenhancing supply chain connection to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Regarding the special ASEAN PlusThree Economic Ministers’ Meeting, Minister Anh said ASEAN countries and thethree partners of China, Japan and the Republic of Korea adopted a jointstatement on mitigating the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

According tohim, the meeting reached high consensus on plans of action and orientations of cooperationin the time ahead to tackle the consequences of the pandemic and stem itsspread while promoting economic development, leaving no country or community inASEAN behind.    

 “The ministers affirmed that the COVID-19pandemic will continue to develop complicatedly, and there are many forecaststhat the pandemic is likely to return at the end of the year,” Anh said, addingthat therefore, all ministers of ASEAN and ASEAN+3 agreed upon the highest goalof effectively fighting the pandemic while coordinating closely to restore theeconomy of their respective countries.  

The countriesconcurred to focus on intra-bloc cooperation, create highly-competitive areasto attract investment, restructure their economies, develop open markets andlimit both tariff and non-tariff measures, he said.

Minister Anh notedthat the ministers also committed to not setting up any new technical barriersto facilitate economic recovery in the bloc./.