Deputy Prime Minister, Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh will attend and deliver a speech at the Plenary Meeting of the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (PECC), while Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam is scheduled to speak at the High-level Policy Dialogue on Human Resources Development in the Digital Age.

Also on May 15, the Policy Partnership on Science, Technology and Innovation (PPSTI) Group will continue the second day of the Workshop on APEC Women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). In addition, PPSTI will also host a Workshop on APEC Research and Technology.

The fourth Meeting of the Ad-hoc Steering Group on the Internet Economy (AHSGIE 4) and the second Meeting of the Committee on Trade and Investment (CTI 2) will take place on the same day.

Today will also meetings of the SOM Friends of the Chair (FotC) on Urbanisation, the SOM Steering Committee on ECOTECH (SCE) and the Policy Support Unit (PSU) Board.

SOM 2 will comprise 49 meetings, workshops and dialogues of APEC committees and working groups, covering a range of spheres such as trade and investment liberalisation, business facilitation, human resource development, education, network economy, food safety, science, technology and creativity, mining, automobile industry and urbanisation. These events were designed to prepare contents for SOM 2 slated for May 17-18.

The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Forum now groups 21 member economies, Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong (China), Indonesia, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Chinese Taipei, Thailand, the US and Vietnam, which together account for 39 percent of the world’s population and contribute 59 percent of the global GDP and 48 percent of the global trade by November 2016.