The business community plays an important part in the APEC cooperation process, as it actively contributes to building and implementing policies and promoting new ideas and new thinking, State President Vo Van Thuong said while delivering remarks at the APEC CEO Summit 2023, held in San Francisco from November 14-16.

Gathering 2,000 leaders from major businesses in the world and the Asia-Pacific, international organizations, research institutes, and universities in the region, the Summit is considered the most important annual event for the regional business community.

It aims to provide an opportunity for enterprises to exchange ideas and raise recommendations with APEC leaders.

President Thuong emphasized that APEC has played a role as an incubator for economic connectivity initiatives that lay the foundation for global agreement. It has also pioneered promoting green growth, disaster response, and gender equality, supporting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and improving healthcare and education quality. These successes are contributed to by the regional business community, he said.

He called on the businesses community to continue accompanying States in fulfilling commitments in sustainable development, pursuing long-term socio-economic and environmental goals, increasing investment in science and technology and people, and building inclusive and resilient communities.

Introducing Vietnam’s development perspectives and policies, President Thuong stressed that Vietnam is striving to maintain sustainable economic growth while ensuring social progress and quality and environmental protection.

He proposed that businesses continue to accompany Vietnam in fulfilling targets by providing consultancy, proposing new investment policies and ideas, transferring solutions, cutting-edge technologies, and new economic models, and boosting investment flows.

With a policy of taking quality, efficiency, high-technology, and environmental protection as the top criteria in attracting investment, Vietnam gives priority to projects in the fields of science and technology, innovation, the green economy, the digital economy, the circular economy, the knowledge economy, semiconductor production, new energy, renewable energy, the development of financial centers, green finance, biotechnology, and medicine, he said.