Prime Minister assigns “3 successes” task to ASEAN National Committee 2020

This is the directive speech of Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc on the afternoon of December 24, at the launching ceremony of the ASEAN National Committee 2020. The Prime Minister affirmed that after more than 5 decades of formation and development, ASEAN has succeeded in building a common home for 630 million Southeast Asian people, the ASEAN Community, with 3 pillars: Politics - Security, Economy and Culture - Society.

This is a “safe home” for all people and is continuing to be strengthened by peace, stability, cooperation and development. In 2018, ASEAN's GDP increased by about 5.1%, reaching nearly 3,000 billion USD, making it the fastest growing economy, with the 6th largest scale globally.

ASEAN has signed 6 Free Trade Agreements with 7 leading trade partners in the world. To date, 91 countries have sent Ambassadors to ASEAN, 37 countries have joined the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia (TAC).

The annual ASEAN Summit meetings have become important international events with the participation of many heads of state, leaders of partner countries, and leading world powers.

The Prime Minister stated that 2020 marks the 25th anniversary of Vietnam becoming a member of the ASEAN “big family” and we are proud that in every success of ASEAN in recent times, there has been a strong contribution from Vietnam - an active, proactive, responsible member, always joining hands with other member countries in strengthening solidarity, developing ASEAN to become increasingly stronger, towards successfully building the ASEAN Community. Vietnam always identifies ASEAN as a priority partner, a “cornerstone” in Vietnam's multilateral diplomacy.

“Never before has multilateral diplomacy in general and ASEAN cooperation in particular received so much attention and such high expectations. That will be the spiritual foundation for every action so that we can make longer and more solid strides in ASEAN cooperation,” said the Prime Minister.

With its new position and strength, Vietnam wishes to continue to promote its role and make more substantial contributions to the process of building and developing a self-reliant and creative ASEAN Community, towards a harmonious, cohesive, and uniquely ASEAN with high adaptability, increasing prosperity, and a responsible role in solving global issues.

In 2020 - the year when Vietnam organizes many important events and anniversaries of the country, the Prime Minister said that the ASEAN Chairmanship Year 2020 is the largest multilateral international event, at that time, ASEAN has gone exactly halfway to implement the master plan on building the ASEAN Community 2025. Therefore, the successful organization of the ASEAN Chairmanship Year 2020 is of great significance, it is the time for ASEAN to conduct a mid-term assessment, decide on the next steps on the way to the finish line to successfully realize the goal of building the ASEAN Community 2025.

According to the Prime Minister, the resonance of all the above events in 2020 will create a new momentum to maximize the country's advantages and potential, enhance the position and image of Vietnam, a country that always values, looks forward to and is ready to do its best to make its ASEAN Chairmanship 2020 a success. The Prime Minister emphasized that the most important thing is that ministries, agencies, localities, businesses, and each citizen must clearly recognize the strategic importance of ASEAN cooperation and see the great benefits and opportunities that ASEAN brings, and "be proud and act with the spirit of being an ASEAN enterprise, an ASEAN citizen". Thus, the vitality of ASEAN will spread widely, arousing initiative, creativity, cooperation, and action together.

The Prime Minister said that the launch of the Committee today demonstrates Vietnam's proactiveness in its responsibility as ASEAN Chair 2020, demonstrating a spirit of urgency and seriousness towards a major foreign event of the country.

Today's event is an important moment to start the "Countdown Clock" to prepare for the ASEAN Chairmanship Year 2020 and "I hope that every "tick - tak" from this moment will be a reminder, urging each of us to be urgent in our work with a high sense of responsibility, flexible and creative in implementation, absolutely not subjective, not lax in each task so that after nearly 2 years we can together be proud of Vietnam's successful ASEAN Chairmanship Year 2020 like the wonderful winning spirit of the national football team that just won the AFF Cup 2018 championship".

The Prime Minister hopes that we will work together to organize the ASEAN Chairmanship Year 2020 with comprehensive results and three major successes: Success in content; success in ensuring security, safety, and respect for protocol; and success in promoting the image, cultural identity, country, and people of Vietnam in the developed and prosperous ASEAN Community.

Immediately after the launching ceremony, the ASEAN National Committee 2020 held its first meeting chaired by the Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Chairman of the Committee. During the meeting, the Chairman of the Committee assigned specific tasks to members to implement the Prime Minister's instructions.

The ASEAN National Committee 2020 consists of 29 members, including 5 Sub-committees: Content, Reception, Propaganda - Culture, Materials - Logistics, Security - Health; and the ASEAN National Secretariat 2020.