Prime Minister attends the opening ceremony and delivers a speech at ASEM 10 Conference

On the evening of October 16 (Vietnam time), the 10th Asia-Europe Meeting Summit (ASEM 10) officially opened at the Convention Center in Milan, Italy, an economic, commercial and financial center of Europe.

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung attends the opening ceremony of the Asia-Europe Summit. Photo: VNA

A high-ranking Vietnamese delegation led by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung attended the Conference.

President of the European Commission Manuel Barroso, President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy, and Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi co-chaired the official welcoming ceremony for ASEM leaders with solemn ceremony.

At the admission ceremony of Croatia and Kazakhstan, the leaders warmly congratulated the two new members on officially joining the ASEM family, affirming the attractiveness and dynamic development of the Forum.

In his opening speech at the Conference, President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy highlighted the Forum's important achievements since the 9th ASEM Summit in Vientiane, Laos, in 2012, continuing to promote ASEM's role as a leading cooperation and dialogue mechanism between the two continents.

Mr. Rompuy emphasized that with the theme “Responsible Partnership for Sustainable Growth and Security”, the 10th ASEM Conference will propose measures to promote cooperation on all three pillars: political dialogue, economic cooperation and cooperation in other fields, towards the 20th anniversary of the establishment and development of the ASEM Forum in 2016.

In subsequent speeches, the Prime Minister of the host country Italy, the leaders of the coordinating members Mongolia, Malaysia and the European Commission, and Laos as the host country of ASEM 9, stressed the importance of increasing cooperation and contributions of ASEM in the face of rapid and unpredictable changes in the two continents and the world.

After the Opening Ceremony, the leaders held the first plenary session on “Promoting economic and financial cooperation through strengthening Asia-Europe connectivity”. The conference assessed that the world economy is gradually recovering, but is still unsustainable, uneven and has many potential risks, in which the Asian economy continues to be the driving force of global growth and structural reforms in Europe are creating the foundation for stronger growth in the medium term.

The conference agreed on the need to continue to promote economic and financial reforms, promote the early adoption of the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement and strengthen policy coordination with the G-20, in order to promote sustainable, strong, balanced and equitable growth. The conference especially highlighted the connectivity between the two continents in all three aspects of infrastructure, institutions and people, as well as the ability to enhance cooperation, digital connectivity, aviation, space cooperation, etc.

Also on the evening of October 16, at the second plenary session on “Asia-Europe Partnership Responding to Global Issues in an Interconnected World”, the leaders all agreed that global challenges are becoming increasingly severe, especially climate change - the greatest challenge for humanity in the 21st century, natural disasters, epidemics, food, water and energy security, rapid population growth... All challenges are having profound and multi-dimensional impacts on every country and every continent, hindering efforts to complete the Millennium Development Goals.

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, along with the President of South Korea, the Chancellor of Germany and the Prime Minister of Malta, were invited to deliver keynote speeches at the second plenary session.

In his speech, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung emphasized that in just over a decade of the 21st century, humanity has had to deal with more severe and complex global challenges than ever before. These include the most serious economic and financial crisis in over 100 years, the double disaster of earthquake and tsunami in Japan, then recently super typhoon Haiyan devastated the Philippines, and now Ebola in Africa, the largest pandemic ever to occur.

All the challenges are intertwined, causing unpredictable economic, social, political, security consequences..., hindering efforts to maintain peace, stability, economic recovery and people's lives in all regions.

Therefore, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung proposed that in order to coordinate actions to contribute to global common efforts, ASEM needs to identify sustainable development as an important content of cooperation in responding to global challenges, in which people must be the goal and center.

The top priorities now are to contribute to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals and the development of the post-2015 development agenda, promote the achievement of a new global climate agreement at the Paris Conference and cooperate in disaster risk reduction at the Sendai Conference.

Accordingly, ASEM needs to have a global development mindset and an interdisciplinary, innovative and creative approach to food security, water resources and energy in the face of climate change, which is making challenges more complex and unpredictable.

At the same time, it is necessary to promote joint efforts in disaster prevention, risk reduction and post-disaster recovery, such as establishing an information exchange and cooperation network as soon as possible. Because the two continents of Asia and Europe are suffering the most natural disasters, such as super typhoons, rising sea levels, droughts, severe floods, etc. Asia-Pacific suffers about 70% of global natural disasters and 2/3 of the victims of natural disasters are in Asia.

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung emphasized that ASEM needs to coordinate synchronously and effectively between activities and initiatives within the Forum as well as with other mechanisms, in which it is necessary to pay due attention to participation and support in narrowing the development gap, sub-regional and regional cooperation of ASEM members, especially Mekong-Danube cooperation and enhancing capacity building for developing members.

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung affirmed that responding to global challenges has always been a key content in the effort to build a dynamic, self-reliant and cohesive ASEAN Community, and in cooperation between ASEAN and its partners. Those efforts have been realized and strongly implemented through programs and agreements.

At the informal summit held this morning, ASEAN-EU leaders affirmed their determination to move towards a strategic partnership, focusing on promoting economic, trade and connectivity relations as well as responding to global challenges.

The cooperation agreement between Ben Tre province of Vietnam and Tulcea province of Romania, signed on the occasion of this Summit and within the framework of Mekong-Danube cooperation, is another vivid demonstration of the practicality of the Asia-Europe partnership.

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung highly appreciated the members' support for Vietnam's three new initiatives at the 10th ASEM Conference on "ASEM Workshop on Sustainable Water Management to Ensure Food Security", "ASEM Youth Week: Stronger Actions to Address the Challenge of Zero Poverty" and "Conference on Green Skills for Comprehensive and Sustainable Growth".

The ASEM 10 Summit will continue its activities on October 17, including a session on “Enhancing Asia-Europe dialogue and cooperation and the future of ASEM”./.