By GENALYN KABILING
DA NANG, Vietnam – Promoting inclusive economic growth and development of micro and small businesses will be part of President Duterte’s mission when he attends a regional summit in Vietnam this week.
The Philippine leader is scheduled to depart Manila for the city of Da Nang on Wednesday, Nov. 8, afternoon to attend the 25th Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit from Nov. 9 to 11.
Duterte will join 20 other leaders from Asia Pacific economies, including US President Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin, China President Xi Jinping, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, for the annual talks on facilitating trade and investment liberalization, business facilitation, and economic and technical cooperation.
“APEC is one of the key regional groupings that we, or platform that the Philippines participate in to broaden our advocacies and growth concerns or promotions in the region,” Foreign Affairs Assistant Secretary Leo Herrera-Lim said in a recent Palace news conference.
“In the 2017 APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting, the key priorities of the Philippines would be full participation of the micro, small and medium enterprises in the global economy, sustainable and inclusive growth, connectivity and human resources development,” he added.
Lim noted that the government has placed inclusive growth and pro-poor agenda as the “hallmarks of its development plan.” “This ties into bringing MSMEs into the global value chain,” Lim said.
Based on his schedule, the President and his delegation of Cabinet members are expected to arrive on Wednesday night in Da Nang, a popular resort city chosen as this year’s venue of the APEC summit.
