Khanh Hoa (VNA) – The first APEC SeniorOfficials’ Meeting (SOM 1) went on in Nha Trang city on February 22 withactivities seven committees, working groups and forums of APEC.

The Committee on Trade and Investment opened aseminar on trade promotion to help with sustainable and inclusive growththrough rural development and poverty reduction. Attendees mulled over measuresto boost sustainable and inclusive growth, remove trade barriers to productsthat directly contribute to growth, and improve the role of trade in povertyelimination and rural development.

The APEC Electronic Commerce Steering Groupbegan the first meeting within the framework of the Data Privacy Sub-Group. Theevent discussed the application of the Cross Border Privacy Rules System,updated about the use of the system, and shared the feedback of businessesusing this system.

Within the Competition Policy and Law Group, aworkshop on economics in competition policy was commenced. Participants sharedinformation and stressed the role of economic evidence in the settlement ofcompetition-relevant cases, the role of the market, the power of the market,the issue of monopoly, and the enterprise merge policy.

Meanwhile, the Human Resource DevelopmentWorking Group (HRDWG) continued meetings of the Capacity Building Network, theEducation Network, and the Labour and Social Protection Network. The functionsapproved activities to be carried out in 2017 and agreed to strengthencoordination at regional and international forums relating toeducation-training.

The HRDWG organised a closing session of thefirst plenary meeting in 2017 later on February 22.

The same day, the Counter Terrorism WorkingGroup also finished the first plenary meeting, where the APEC members presentedactivities and anti-terrorism measures they have conducted within othermultilateral forums and mechanisms. They also agreed on priorities of thegroup’s upcoming meeting.

The Life Science Innovation Forum also wrappedup the first plenum, in which it reviewed cooperation outcomes in 2016, lookedinto the commercialisation of biomedical technology and the use of big data inmedical research.

Also on February 22, representatives of the APECeconomies continued the meeting of the Sub-Committee on Customs Procedures todebate policies and measures to augment cooperation in IT and risk management,the intellectual property protection at border, counterfeit prevention, andcross-border e-commerce. They were also updated about the implementationprogress of the Collection Action Plan while suggesting orientations forfostering cooperation with other committees and working groups of APEC.-VNA