Hanoi (VNA) – A conference on Vietnam’sperformance across three pillars of the ASEAN Community took place in Hanoi onDecember 26, gathering 100 representatives from ministries and sectors involvedin cooperative activities with the bloc.

Chairing the event, Deputy Prime Minister and ForeignMinister Pham Binh Minh asked participating agencies to put forth measures toenhance effectiveness of the country’s cooperation in the framework of ASEANbased on reviewing past activities. .

He also required the ministries and sectors to propose plansand specific roadmaps for Vietnam to take over the rotating ASEAN chairmanshipin 2020.

Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh said ASEAN economiccooperation, which puts the bloc at the centre of comprehensive ties expansionwith dialogue partners, has brought about practical outcomes.

He however, pointed to challenges facing the bloc in thisregard, including rising protectionism, lesser attention given to multilateralcooperation compared to bilateral ones, and a lack of spearheaded products tomake joint economic plans meet their goals.

On behalf of agencies engaged in ASEAN cultural and socialcooperation, Deputy Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Dao HongLan said ASEAN has made remarkable progress in building a people-centred communityworking for improvement of residents’ living standards.

She suggested more attention be given to raising ASEANawareness among the public and enhancing personnel’s capacity.

The conference heard Deputy Foreign Minister Nguyen QuocDung, also head of the Vietnam ASEAN Senior Officials' Meeting (SOM), presentingan overview on ASEAN collaboration and Vietnam’s involvement in the bloc, and representativesof participating ministries reporting about their work in specific fields.

Participants agreed Vietnam’s 22-year participation in ASEANcooperation has brought about significant benefits in building a peaceful andsecured environment for economic development, sovereignty protection, andinternational integration. At the same time, Vietnam should address difficultiesin awareness, resources, and coordination mechanisms among local agencies inorder to promote the cooperation.

Concluding the conference, Deputy PM Minh requestedministries and sectors involved to come up with specific measures to boostawareness on the importance of ASEAN, shake-up their apparatus and humanresources, and build cooperative plans for different areas.

He urged the building of draft amendments to the working andcoordination protocol for Vietnamese agencies and sectors involved in ASEANcooperation and capacity improvement of the Vietnam ASEAN National Secretariat.

He assigned relevant agencies to work with the ForeignMinistry in proposing measures and initiatives for the 2020 ASEAN chairmanshipof Vietnam.-VNA