President Luong Cuong attends and speaks at the APEC Business Advisory Council 2025 Meeting

President Luong Cuong attends the opening session of the 3rd Meeting of the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC III) in 2025. Photo: VPCTN

The ABAC III meeting took place from July 15-18 with the participation of about 200 international and Vietnamese delegates, including ABAC members who are leaders of corporations, leading enterprises, trade and investment promotion organizations from 21 APEC economies , assistants and international guests.

The overarching theme of ABAC 2025 is: “Bridge-Enterprise-Reaching Out” - a message that is both connecting and expressing the desire to cooperate to overcome challenges for sustainable development.

ABAC III is one of four official annual meetings of the Council, held in rotation in major cities of 21 APEC member economies. This is not only a place for high-level policy discussions, but also a platform for the business community to discuss and develop recommendations of practical value.

This is one of the important meetings to unify the content of ABAC's letter to APEC Ministers: Ministry of Economy, SME, Health , Ministry in charge of digital transformation; complete ABAC's report on policy recommendations from the business community to submit to APEC Economic Leaders at the October 2025 Summit Week in Korea.

The opening ceremony and sessions of ABAC III focused on strategic topics such as: Trade-investment, digital economy, green transformation, sustainable finance, small and medium enterprise development, supply chain, artificial intelligence, smart healthcare, etc.

President Luong Cuong speaks at the opening session.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, President Luong Cuong affirmed that throughout its 36 years of establishment and development, APEC has affirmed its role as a leading economic cooperation mechanism, a driving force for promoting growth and integration, ensuring peace, stability, connectivity and prosperity for the region.

Pointing out that the world is facing profound geopolitical changes, witnessing post-pandemic economic recovery with many potential risks, global challenges such as climate change, extreme weather events, changes in trade policies and supply chain disruptions, the President said that multilateral cooperation and public-private dialogue are becoming more important and need to be promoted to a new level.

President Luong Cuong speaks at the opening session.

As the official representative mechanism of the business community in APEC, playing a key role as a bridge between the private sector and APEC Economic Leaders, ABAC not only proposes favorable economic policies but also directly participates in creating practical solutions to strengthen value chains, promote investment, facilitate trade flows and encourage innovation; initiatives from ABAC will continue to be the driving force for sustainable development of the region.

The President welcomed the ABAC’s selection of discussion topics for this session revolving around core areas such as: free trade and sustainable investment; digital transformation and artificial intelligence; green finance and sustainable development; health security and innovation in the field of biotechnology; emphasizing that these are all major priorities of Vietnam in the national development strategy to 2030 and vision to 2045.

View of the meeting. Photo: VPCTN

The President affirmed that to realize these priorities, Vietnam is promoting strong institutional reforms, perfecting the legal system, and building a transparent, competitive, and stable investment and business environment. In recent years, Vietnam has become an attractive destination for international investors, not only thanks to its market size of more than 100 million people, but also thanks to its ability to access large markets through a network of new-generation free trade agreements such as CPTPP, RCEP, and EVFTA.

At the same time, Vietnam always attaches importance to APEC cooperation and actively contributes to the common effort to realize the APEC Vision 2040 of an open, dynamic, resilient and peaceful Asia-Pacific community for the prosperity of all people and future generations. This is clearly demonstrated through Vietnam's efforts since joining APEC in 1998, and is proud to have successfully organized APEC Years 2006 and 2017. Vietnam is particularly interested in promoting and facilitating trade and investment cooperation in the region.

Delegates attend the opening session of the APEC Business Advisory Council 2025 (ABAC III) meeting. Photo: VPCTN

The President emphasized that with its central role in the regional economic network and multilateral free trade agreements, Vietnam offers investors the advantage of accessing diverse markets and supply chains throughout the region. Therefore, investing in Vietnam is not only investing in a dynamic, stable and rapidly growing economy, but also a strategic step to connect with large and potential partners in the world, as well as other free trade zones.

Sharing about the impressive results in economic growth in 2024, in which the export turnover of goods exceeded the threshold of 390 billion USD for the first time, the President said that in 2025, Vietnam aims to grow by 8% or more, contributing to creating a solid foundation to achieve double-digit growth in the following years.

Vietnam promotes rapid but sustainable growth, maintains macroeconomic stability, controls inflation, ensures balanced and harmonious development between the economy and society and protects the environment, while promoting innovation, developing a technology ecosystem, and promoting research and development centers in the fields of semiconductors, AI and the digital economy.

Identifying enterprises as a pioneering force in the process of national modernization, the President noted that Vietnam has issued important decisions to support the development of the private enterprise sector, especially small and medium enterprises; these are comprehensive support mechanisms from capital access, human resource training, digital transformation, to supporting technological innovation, and encouraging investment in priority industries. This is a concrete step demonstrating Vietnam's strong commitment to creating a favorable environment and accompanying the business community in sustainable development.

President Luong Cuong and domestic and international delegates at the APEC Business Advisory Council 2025 Meeting. Photo: VPCTN

The President emphasized that currently, the State and Government of Vietnam are synchronously implementing support mechanisms, such as: Policy testing mechanism, tax incentive packages for innovative enterprises, administrative procedure reform, digital infrastructure development and open data serving enterprises...

At the same time, encourage businesses to increase investment in strategic areas such as renewable energy, green economy, smart cities, high-tech agriculture; at the same time, proactively promote policy dialogues between the Government and the private sector to promptly adjust regulations in accordance with reality. Vietnam is also moving towards a comprehensive development future, creating a foundation for businesses to accelerate development, with a number of important goals in the fields of infrastructure, energy, digital transformation and technology, green and circular economy, thereby by 2045, Vietnam will become a developed, high-income country.

Assessing that a sustainable APEC region cannot lack close connections between businesses, the President called on the APEC business community to strengthen cooperation, link production chains, share technology, and improve adaptability to global shocks; at the same time, encourage organizations such as ABAC and large enterprises in the region to actively support small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) through training, technology transfer and market cooperation so that they can participate more deeply in the global value chain, contributing to the inclusive and sustainable development of the region.

The President affirmed that in the coming time, Vietnam will continue to promote APEC cooperation initiatives in the direction of putting people at the center, businesses as the driving force and sustainable development as the goal; at the same time, he pledged to continue accompanying ABAC in building practical policy recommendations that accurately reflect the expectations and needs of the business community.

President Luong Cuong and delegates visit exhibition booths introducing local specialties, culture and economic potential of Hai Phong. Photo: VPCTN

The President believes that the ABAC III Meeting in Hai Phong will be a forum for connecting minds, sharing visions and inspiring innovative ideas; the recommendations and initiatives conceived, formed and developed at ABAC III will be of great value in the preparation process for the Dialogue between ABAC and APEC Leaders in October in the Republic of Korea.

On the same morning, President Luong Cuong and delegates visited exhibition booths introducing local specialties, culture and economic potential of Hai Phong at the meeting venue.

Source: https://vpctn.gov.vn/tin-tuc-su-kien/chu-tich-nuoc-luong-cuong-du-va-phat-bieu-tai-ky-hop-hoi-dong-tu-van-kinh-doanh-apec-2025.html