National ASEAN 2020 Committee holds second meeting

The National ASEAN 2020 Committee, which is in charge of preparation work for Vietnam’s chairmanship of the ASEAN in 2020, held its second meeting in Hanoi on March 22 under the chair of Deputy Prime Minister and head of the committee Pham Binh Minh.

At the second meeting of the National ASEAN 2020 Committee (Photo: VNA)
At the second meeting of the National ASEAN 2020 Committee (Photo: VNA)

Deputy Foreign Minister Nguyen Quoc Dung, who is General Secretary of the committee, reported on the work undertaken by the five sub-committees since the committee’s first meeting in December last year. He said while the implementation of tasks set at the first meeting had met schedule, the huge work load requires all ministries and sectors to keep up their efforts.

Issues tabled for discussion at the meeting included how to decide themes and key priorities during the year Vietnam holds the ASEAN Chair, the criteria for developing Vietnam’s initiatives, and criteria and a roadmap for designing the logo for the year.

Deputy PM Minh approved the directions for the work to be carried out until the third meeting of the committee, slated for June. He told the ministries and sectors to timely report any arising problems during the process of preparation.

The National ASEAN 2020 Committee was set up under the Prime Minister’s Decision No. 1743/QD-TTg dated December 14, 2018.

The committee, headed by Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh, includes 29 members.

It is made up of five subcommittees in charge of the contents, protocol issues, communications and culture, materials and logistics, and security and health care, along with the National ASEAN 2020 Secretariat.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) comprises Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore and Vietnam. The countries take turn to hold the chairmanship of the association on a rotary basis.