Vietnam: What is APEC? What is the APEC Business Travel Card? Who are APEC business travel cards issued to?

Main Content

• What is APEC? What is the APEC Business Travel Card?
• Who are APEC business travel cards issued to?
• What are the conditions for APEC membership?

What is APEC? What is the APEC Business Travel Card?

The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) is an international organization of countries located in the Asia-Pacific region to strengthen economic and political ties.

APEC was established in November 1989 with 12 founding members: Australia, Japan, Malaysia, South Korea, Thailand, Philippines, Singapore, Brunei, Indonesia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States. Currently, APEC consists of 21 members, in addition to the 12 founding members, other members include the People's Republic of China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Mexico, Papua New Guinea, Chile, Peru, Russia, and Vietnam.

Vietnam joined APEC in 1998. Despite being a developing economy in transformation, Vietnam has actively participated in APEC programs. In October 1998, we finalized the National Plan of Action (IAP) and submitted it to APEC, after which every year we continued to upgrade and concretize the commitments made in the IAP. Vietnam's IAP commitment and implementation are considered the most serious among the newly joined members (having expanded commitments in 11 out of 15 areas). In the coming time, Vietnam will focus on giving priority to the economic-technical cooperation program; and selectively participate in several Collective Action Plans (CAPs) such as customs procedures, quality standards, tourism, etc.

In addition, APEC has the following organizational structure:

(1) APEC Summit;

(2) APEC Ministerial Meeting;

(3) Meetings of senior officials;

(4) APEC Secretariat;

(5) Professional committees: (i) the Budget and Management Committee (BMC); (ii) Committee on Trade and Investment (CTI); (iii) the Economic Committee (EC);

(6) Working Groups: There are currently 14 Working Groups or experts in charge of specialized fields in APEC;

(7) APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC).

Under the provisions in Clause 1, Article 3 of Decision 09/2023/QD-TTg, ABTC is a card issued by the competent authority of an APEC participating economy (hereinafter referred to as participating economy) to its business people after receiving the approval for entry from other participating economies.

Who are APEC business travel cards issued to?

In Article 9, Decision 09/2023/QD-TTg, ABTC-eligible entities are specified as follows:

- Business people working for state-owned enterprises:

+ Presidents of the Board of Members, Presidents of the Board of Directors, Presidents of companies, members of the Board of Members, members of Board of Directors; General Directors, Deputy General Directors, Directors, Deputy Directors of enterprises, banks or bank branches;

+ Heads and deputy Heads of Management Boards of industrial parks, export processing zones and economic zones;

+ Chief accountants, heads and deputy heads of boards, heads and deputy heads of departments in person related to business, trade, investment and service activities in enterprises; Heads of the branches of the enterprise.

- Presidents of the Board of Members, Presidents of the Board of Directors, Presidents of companies, General Directors, Deputy General Directors or Directors, Deputy Directors of enterprises affiliated to socio-political organizations; President, Vice President of Vietnam Federation of Trade and Industry; Heads and Deputy Heads of boards, Directors, Deputy Directors and Heads of Departments affiliated to Vietnam Federation of Trade and Industry.

- Vietnamese business people working for enterprises that are legally established under the laws of Vietnam;

+ Sole proprietors, Presidents of the Board of Members, members of the Board of Members, Presidents of the Board of Directors, members of the Board of Directors; Presidents of companies; General Directors or Directors, Deputy General Directors or Deputy Directors of enterprises;

+ President of the Board of Directors, members of the Board of Directors, Directors or General Directors of cooperatives or joint cooperatives;

+ Chief accountants, Directors of divisions or Managers in person related to business, trade, investment and service activities in enterprises; Heads of the branches of the enterprise.

- Officials and public employees responsible for attending meetings, conferences, seminars and other economic cooperation and development of APEC.

- Heads and deputy heads of Vietnamese trade representative offices in member states or territories of APEC.

What are the conditions for APEC membership?

The prerequisites for considering an economy's accession to APEC are:

- Be located in the Asia-Pacific region;

- Have close economic and trade relations with economies in the region; - Determination to pursue an open economic policy;

- Resolve to implement APEC's policies;

- The economy must complete the Collective Action Plan (CAP) and the National Action Plan (IAP) by APEC regulations.

In addition to official membership, APEC also has observer status for three regional organizations, ASEAN, PECC, and the South Pacific Forum (SPF) (there is no observer status for a particular country or territory). Non-APEC members can participate in APEC activities as guests at APEC Working Groups (since February 1996, Peru has been participating in Working Groups on fisheries and tourism; several other countries, including Russia and India, are also applying to participate in Working Groups of interest to them).

Source: http://www.molisa.gov.vn