Vice President of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), Doan Duy Khuong, has offically taken over chairmanship of the ASEAN Business Advisory Council (ASEAN BAC) from incumbent chairman Arin Jira.
Addressing a press briefing in Hanoi on Jan. 19, Khuong said during this tenure, the ASEAN BAC will focus on issues related to the private sector, particularly gathering opinions and proposals from enterprises.
The gatherings will be used as inputs for the BAC to put forth recommendations at a dialogue session between ASEAN heads of states and ASEAN BAC members and at a consultative meeting with ASEAN Economic Ministers.
These recommendations are very important for the foundation of an ASEAN Economic Community by 2015, for which a series of economic agreements have been signed and numerous action plans, including long-term plans such as the ASEAN Charter, have been kicked off, Khuong said.
According to the new ASEAN BAC chairman, this year Vietnam will host the 7th ASEAN Business and Investment Summit (ASEAN BIS 2010) as part of activities on the sidelines of the 16th ASEAN Summit.
Vietnam will also chair the ASEAN Business Award – a prestigious competition that draws participation of hundreds of leading businesses in ASEAN.
The VCCI will continue to take up chairmanship of the ASEAN Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ASEAN CCI).
VCCI President Vu Tien Loc, who now chairs the ASEAN CCI, said Vietnam will work to boost cooperation between the ASEAN CCI with governments of member states and continue economic cooperation projects in order to turn ASEAN into an economic community by 2015.
Among the projects and activities to be conducted are the ASEAN Industrial Projects (AIPs), the ASEAN Brand to Brand Complementation programme (BBC), the ASEAN Industrial Complementation programme (AIC), the Preferential Tax Agreement (PTA) and the ASEAN Free Trade Agreement (AFTA)./.