State President Nguyen Xuan Phuc will attend the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Informal Leaders’ Retreat on July 16, 2021 at the invitation of New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.

State President Nguyen Xuan Phuc

This is the first time in APEC’s history that the region has such an extraordinary meeting at leaders’ level, and it reflects APEC's desire to navigate together out of the COVID-19 pandemic and economic crisis, according to Prime Minister Ardern.

APEC economies have suffered their biggest contraction since the Second World War over the past year, with 81 million jobs lost, thus responding collectively is vital to accelerate the economic recovery for the region, Ardern emphasized.

The region has already responded in significant ways, including removing barriers to the efficient distribution of vaccines and related goods, but there is still a lot of work to do to get through the crisis,” she added.

She said that regional leaders will share information so we can continue to build on collective understanding of the region’s health response to COVID-19, and shape a collaborative economic response.

APEC's 21 member economies are Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, China; Hong Kong (China), Indonesia, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, the Russian Federation, Singapore, Chinese Taipei, Thailand, the U.S., and Viet Nam./.