Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh, on behalf of ASEAN Economic Ministers, held a phone discussion with Secretary-General of ASEAN Lim Jock Hoi on May 6 regarding plans for recovering the regional economy and maintaining intra-bloc supply chains after the COVID-19 pandemic has been brought under control.

The discussion also focused on the implementation of regional leaders’ directions at the ASEAN 3 Special Summit on COVID-19 Response in April.

The minister affirmed that Vietnam is paying close attention to the quick response to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on regional economies and supply chains.

As Chair of ASEAN in 2020, Vietnam supports and is willing to facilitate exchanges within the framework of ASEAN 3 to devise an economic recovery plan and prevent the negative effects of the pandemic, as directed by ASEAN 3 leaders, he said.

Minister Anh and ASEAN Secretary-General Lim agreed to monitor and push for early agreement between ASEAN member countries and the three partner nations of China, Japan, and the Republic of Korea on the content and adoption of a joint statement of ASEAN 3 Ministers on coping with COVID-19 in the time to come.

He thanked Lim for his support for Vietnam promoting its role as ASEAN Chair, in particular his support for the country’s proposal to issue a joint statement from the ASEAN Economic Ministers (AEM) on enhancing economic resilience to respond to COVID-19 at the AEM Retreat in March, and to prompt ASEAN member nations to approve a joint statement from ASEAN and Japanese economic ministers on initiatives on economic resilience in response to the COVID-19 outbreak.

The minister also updated the ASEAN Secretary-General on the Vietnamese Prime Minister’s decision to remove temporary restrictions on the export of medical products such as masks and to resume normal rice exports from May 1 in a spirit of collective responsibility in ensuring food supply in the ASEAN Community and in accordance with declarations adopted by ASEAN Economic Ministers and partner countries./.

Source: Vietnam Plus

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