Socialist Republic of Vietnam

Los Cabos, Oct. 27 (VNA) -- Viet Nam welcomed the U.S.'s initiative to boost trade with ASEAN, considering it as an important contribution to the ASEAN-U.S. economic and commercial cooperation, said Prime Minister Phan Van Khai.

During a meeting between U.S. President George W. Bush with leaders from member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Los Cabos, the Vietnamese PM highly valued the U.S.'s pledge to support Viet Nam, Cambodia, and Laos to join the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

"Viet Nam believes that strengthened ASEAN-U.S. economic cooperation will benefit both sides, the region and the world at large," Khai stressed.

Viet Nam hoped that the U.S. with great economic potential and important role in the region and the world would exert more efforts to raise the competitiveness and capacity of each member country of ASEAN and the whole grouping, he added.

PM Khai had been in Los Cabos for the 10th meeting of econmic leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum and the APEC Summit.

Khai said that with encouraging achievements in the Viet Nam-U.S. Bilateral Trade Agreement implementation, Viet Nam welcomes the initiative to set up bilateral free trade areas (FTA) between ASEAN member countries and the U.S., and holds that the process to form these FTAs should be discussed carefully among parties in order to ensure ASEAN member countries' effective integration into the regional and world economy.