Hanoi (VNA) – Up to 2,000 domesticand international delegates are expected to register for attendance at events withinthe framework of the second APEC Senior Officials Meeting (SOM 2) and relatedmeetings scheduled to take place in Hanoi and Ninh Binh province from May 9-21,heard a press briefing on May 5. To date, around 250 local reporters and200 foreign peers have also signed up for coverage of these events, the organiserssaid. SOM 2 will comprise 49 meetings, workshopsand dialogues of committees and working groups of the Asia-Pacific EconomicCooperation (APEC) Forum, covering a range of spheres such as trade andinvestment liberalisation, business facilitation, human resource development,education, network economy, food safety, science, technology and creativity,mining, automobile industry and urbanisation. At these events, APEC delegates areexpected to continue speeding up the deployment of long-term cooperationprogrammes and plans in key areas and reach consensus on documents to besubmitted to ministers for approval, laying a foundation for preparing contentsand documents for the APEC Economic Leaders Meeting and APEC Ministerial Meetingin central Da Nang city in November 2017. A multilateral dialogue on APEC towards2020 and the future, a High-level Policy Dialogue on Human Resource Developmentin the Digital Age, a Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (PECC) meeting, aSenior Finance Officials Meeting (SFOM) and the 23rd MinistersResponsible for Trade (MRT) Meeting will also be held on this occasion. Since its inception in 1989, APEC has proveditself as a leading economic cooperation and connectivity mechanism in the Asia-Pacificregion, focusing on three pillars: trade and investment liberalisation,business facilitation and economic-technological cooperation. APEC now groups 21 member economies,Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong (China), Indonesia, Japan,the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru,the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Chinese Taipei, Thailand, the US andVietnam, which together account for 39 percent of the world’s population andcontribute 59 percent of the global GDP and 48 percent of the global trade (byNovember 2016). Vietnam officially joined APEC in November1998, marking a milestone in the implementation of its foreign policy ofopenness, multilateralisation and diversification of relations andinternational economic integration. Since then, Vietnam has made positivecontributions to the APEC cooperation process. The country successfully hostedthe APEC Year 2006, in which the 14th APEC Economic Leaders Meeting endorsedthe Hanoi Action Plan to implement the Busan Roadmap towards the Bogor Goals,approved measures to enhance the efficiency of APEC cooperation and set outlong-term prospects towards the formation of the Free Trade Area of theAsia-Pacific (FTAAP). In 2014, Vietnam also successfully organised the 6th APEC Human Resources Development Ministerial Meeting. Vietnam has recommended and joined in manynew initiatives alongside with proposing and carrying out more than 100projects related to trade, investment, economic-technological cooperation,small- and medium-sized enterprises, response to emergency, healthcare, foodsecurity and counter-terrorism. The nation has assumed important positions inAPEC cooperation mechanisms.-VNA