Vietnam eyes early APEC membership

Vietnam eyes early APEC membership

HANOI (Reuter): Vietnam said yesterday that it hoped to become a member of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum soon, but fell short of predicting its accession at the group's summit later this month.

"We think that Vietnam becoming a full member of APEC fits the purpose of the organization and the interests of related countries," a Foreign Ministry spokesman said in a statement.

"When Vietnam joins APEC still depends on the decision of the member countries," he said. "But we hope it will happen soon."

A senior Philippine official and former trade minister told Reuters on Wednesday that membership of the forum could be expanded to countries such as Vietnam as early as this month's meeting in Manila.

The moratorium on APEC membership expires this month and the issue of extension is to be discussed at the APEC ministerial meeting beginning Nov. 22. The APEC leaders' summit will be held on Nov. 25.

The Philippines, the current APEC chair holder, has said it does not want to see an extension of the moratorium on membership.

But it has indicated it would like see the adoption of admission criteria, which are thought to include geographical location and a display of commitment to trade liberalization.

The Foreign Ministry spokesman noted that communist Vietnam was an Asia-Pacific country and a member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and had carried out a raft of economic and other reforms.

Vietnam became the seventh member of the formerly non- communist ASEAN group last year and has set up an office to work on meeting the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) goal of reducing tariffs on thousands of goods to between zero and five percent.

The target date for AFTA to come into effect is in 2003, but Vietnam has been granted a special three-year grace period to become fully integrated.

Eleven countries have applied to join APEC, which currently groups Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and the United States