Asean economic officials eye more effective cooperation
VIENTIANE - Senior Asean economic officials anticipate that they will work to promote closer cooperation in fields such as trade, investment and services among community members and trade partners.
The 29th Meeting of the High-Level Task Force on Asean Economic Integration (HLTF-EI) held in Vientiane last Friday was part of preparations for the 47th Asean Economic Ministers Meeting (SEOM 47). It also aimed to implement the previous tasks endorsed by Asean senior officials.
Laos' Senior Economic Official Dr Laohoua Cheuching, who led Lao senior economic officials at the meeting, said the 29th meeting was one of Asean's endeavours to promote the commitments and agreements made by senior Asean officials at a recent meeting in Malaysia.
“At today's consultation meeting, we came up with many different issues that were the result of previous meetings, which were agreed upon by our senior officials,” he said.
He said the document was endorsed at the 27th Meeting of the High-Level Task Force on Asean Economic Integration in Malaysia, referring to several important issues including trade, products and services.
“We will also push forward practical action on various targets and review the AEC Blueprint 2015, along with a review of trade implementation between Asean and its trade partners,” Dr Laohoua said.
Asea n also pla ns to organise a roadshow to America next month in the hope of promoting bilateral trade ties betwee n the two sides, a senior official said.
A series of meetings, which kicked off on January 18 and ended on January 22, aimed to facilitate economic discussion between Asean members and Asean with the EU in the field of economic cooperation, a nd a presentation of the AEC Blueprint from now until 2025.
During the meetings, as the chair of Asean in 2016, Laos took the opportunity to propos e initiatives and priorities to be integrated in the AEC Blueprint 2015, which will also support the 8th National Socio-economic Development Plan for 2016-20.
