The opening ceremony of the APEC CEO Summit 2017 took place at the Ariyana Convention Centre in Da Nang on Wednesday afternoon.  The event attracted a total of about 2,000 high-ranking leaders from businesses in the Asia-Pacific region.

A view of the opening ceremony

Running from 8-10 November as part of the ongoing APEC Economic Leaders’ Week, the APEC CEO Summit 2017 is the largest and most important annual event of the business community in the Asia-Pacific region.

In his keynote speech at the event, Vietnamese State President Tran Dai Quang remarked: “As a premier regional economic forum, APEC has recorded many significant achievements in socio-economic development, and lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty.”

State President Tran Dai Quang delivering his speech

APEC has become the most effective economic cooperation mechanism in promoting the role of businesses and transforming the Asia-Pacific region into a driver of global growth and integration as well as the incubator of new ideas for the future.

In particular, the national leader spoke highly of the crucial devotion of the Asia-Pacific business community towards the achievements mentioned above.

The APEC business community also plays a pioneering role in the development of new technology and energy industries, business cooperation, and next-generation trade and investment issues, bringing about greater resources to better meet the APEC people’s material and cultural demands. 

The President also highlighted the overarching target of furthering people and business-centred development, which is the key goal of the APEC’s success.

State President Quang and other participants at the event

The APEC CEO Summit 2017 offers a wonderful chance for leaders, businesses, policy-makers and researchers to exchange their ideas on global and regional economic, trade and investment viewpoints and orientations, whilst sharing their experience and designing measures to strengthen cooperation between businesses of the APEC region and the rest of the world.

Under the Summit’s agenda, participants are getting involved in many key discussion sessions, namely ‘The Future of Globalisation’ ‘The Future of Work’, ‘The New Job Creators’, ‘Connecting for Growth’, ‘New Frontiers in Trade’ ‘Summit Keynote Address’, ‘The Digital Age’ and ‘ Made in the World”.

Most notably, Chinese President Xi Jinping, US President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe are expected to deliver keynote addresses at the APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting.

(Source: DA NANG Today/ NDO)