Hanoi (VNA) ꧒– Officials, experts,scholars and entrepreneurs from ASEAN countries and Japan gathered at asymposium in Hanoi on June 4 to discuss measures to lift the two sides’strategic partnership to a new level.

The symposium, themed “ASEAN-Japan cooperationfor prosperity”, was held by the foreign ministries of Vietnam, the coordinatorof ASEAN-Japan relations for 2018-2021, and Japan. Opening the event’s session on the ASEAN-Japanpartnership, Vietnamese Deputy Foreign Minister Nguyen Quoc Dung said ASEAN andJapan have attained numerous cooperation achievements and become indispensableto each other. To further promote peace, stability andprosperous development, they should continue coordinating closely with eachother to make use of opportunities and overcome challenges, he noted. He also suggested four priority directions forbilateral cooperation, namely enhancing mutual trust and respect and complyingwith the common principles of the partnership for peace and stability,bolstering win-win business cooperation, sharing responsibility and boostingjoint efforts to ensure people’s living quality, and maintaining the sincerityand the “heart-to-heart” relationship. Meanwhile, Japanese Deputy Foreign MinisterTakeo Mori noted his country highly values ASEAN’s building of a vision forIndo-Pacific cooperation, adding that the two sides share many common basicprinciples, including Japan’s continuation of its support for ASEAN’s centralrole. He also expressed his hope that Japan’sviewpoint on a free and open Indo-Pacific region will be connected with theIndo-Pacific vision of the bloc through practical cooperative activities. Participants agreed that ASEAN and Japan need tocontinue promoting the high priorities at present like maritime security;trade, investment, digital economy, smart city building, and high-qualityinfrastructure development; innovation, human resources training, connectivity,economic integration and participation in regional value chains, therebyhelping to narrow the development gap, ensure no one is left behind in thedevelopment process, and lift the ASEAN-Japan strategic partnership to a newlevel. At another session, participants discussed theenhancement of business cooperation and directions for attracting Japaneseinvestment in hi-tech agriculture in ASEAN.  Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Agriculture andRural Development Le Quoc Doanh said the cooperation with Japan and ASEAN countriesto help build high-quality agriculture with stable development in the region isa top priority in agricultural development of Vietnam. In the time ahead, the Vietnamese Governmentwill keep perfecting policies and improving the investment climate so as toattract investment in hi-tech agriculture, he noted. Parliamentary Vice Minister for Foreign Affairsof Japan Norikazu Suzuki said modern machinery and technology will be anadvantage of his country when it cooperates with ASEAN countries. It will sendmore experts to the grouping’s members to share agricultural experience whilereceiving apprentices from them. At the session on population ageing,Secretary-General of the ASEAN-Japan Centre Masataka Fujita said the elderlywill account for 21 percent of ASEAN’s population by 2050, doubling the currentfigure. The ageing speed in Vietnam is even faster than in other regionalcountries, with the rate of old people to reach 28 percent by 2050. Sakarn Bunnag, Director of the geriatricsinstitute under the Department of Medical Services of the Thai Ministry ofPublic Health, said the opening of re-training and support establishments forold people like the ASEAN Centre for Active Ageing and Innovation, scheduled tomake debut this November, will help disseminate knowledge and assist theimplementation of policies targeting the elderly in ASEAN. Meanwhile, Deputy Director of the OverseasLabour Department under the Vietnamese Ministry of Labour, Invalids and SocialAffairs Pham Viet Huong said the population ageing in some countries like Japanis a great chance for exporting Vietnamese labourers. After returning home,these workers will be the core force in many services for the elderly inVietnam. As part of the symposium, the session on smartcity development gave participants an insight into opportunities and challengesfor the state and private sectors in this work. It also shared Japan’sexperience to help ASEAN countries make their smart city building plans.-VNA