Vietnam will in coming days host an Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit in Danang that’s sure to bolster its international stature amid increasingly complex regional and global developments. Yet such phenomena run counter to the founding principles of Apec, which groups 21 national economies that depend to a great extent on free trade and globalisation. Apec emerged in 1989 against a spreading backdrop of multilateralism, just as the Cold War came to an end. That was only three years after Vietnam began its own “Doi Moi” programme aimed at transforming a socialist society into a market economy. Vietnam joined Apec in November 1998, seeking to benefit from globalisation and the fiscal liberalisation that came with it.

Source: The Nation Bangkok October 30, 2017 18:11 UTC