HANOI, Oct. 4 (Xinhuanet) -- The fifth Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM 5)slated for Oct. 8-9 here will have distinctive features, which will further revitalize and substantiate the overall partnership between the two continents, a Vietnamese official said here on Monday.

    "This will be the first time that a summit admits new members,and that leaders of ASEM members make high-level commitments regarding economic partnership and dialogue among cultures and civilizations to step up cooperation between Asia and Europe.. The leaders will also meet business communities for the first time," Assistant to the Vietnamese Minister of Foreign Affairs Nguyen Trung Thanh said at a press conference on ASEM 5.

    Before the summit's opening ceremony, an enlargement ceremony will be held in Daewoo Hotel in the capital of Hanoi to welcome 13 new ASEM members, including 3 ASEAN countries, Laos, Cambodia Myanmar, and 10 new European Union (EU) state members, namely Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Slovenia, Malta and Cyprus, he said.

    "The first enlargement summit will mark new development of the ASEM process, both in terms of quantity and quality," Thanh stated, adding that ASEM 5 will also the first summit at which leaders of ASEM members adopt the Hanoi Declaration on Closer ASEM Economic Partnership and the ASEM Declaration on Dialogue among Cultures and Civilizations.

    During the 9th Asia-Europe Business Forum (AEBF) to be held in Hanoi on Oct. 7-8, heads of state and government of ASEM members will meet with representatives of the private and public sectors of Asia and Europe whose proposals are expected to be reviewed by the leaders.

    In the context of complicated world situations, increasing violence, and economic-trade huge potentials of Asia and Europe not being fully tapped, Vietnam has suggested ASEM 5's overall theme "Further Revitalizing and Substantiating the Asia-Europe Partnership", which is highly appreciated by other ASEM members, Thanh said, noting that the summit will pursue four main targets, and issue three statements.

    "Under the overall theme, the delegates will focus their discussions on political, economic and cultural fields with an aim to bring ASEM to a new development stage with more revitalization and substantiation; strengthen bilateral cooperation to cope with new globalization challenges; enhance the vitality, attractiveness and the role of Asia and Europe via ASEM in the globalizing world;make contributions to peace, security, stability, prosperous development and social progress not only in the two continents butalso the whole world," he said.

    ASEM's agenda will include discussions on regional and international developments, new global challenges, international terrorism, the role of the United Nations, non-traditional security threads, future of ASEM, measures to beef up Asia-Europe economic partnership in the context of globalization, and cultural diversity in the age of information technology, he said, adding that ASEM 5 will adopt the chairman's statement, the Hanoi Declaration on Closer ASEM Economic Partnership and the ASEM Declaration on Dialogue among Cultures and Civilizations.

    On Oct. 8, ASEM 5's opening ceremony will be held at the Ba Dinh Hall with the participation of 39 delegations, including 25 EU state members, the European Commission, 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), namely Vietnam, Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand,Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar, and three Northeast Asian countries --China, Japan and South Korea.

    ASEM, informal process of dialogue and cooperation, addresses political, economic and cultural issues, with the objective of strengthening the relationship between Asia and Europe. ASEM 1 wasorganized in 1996 in Thailand; ASEM 2 in 1998 in England to mainly discuss issues arising from the Asian financial crisis in 1997; ASEM 3 in 2000 in South Korea to address, inter alia, the future directions of the ASEM process into the first decade of the 21st century, and issue the Seoul Declaration for Peace on the Korean Peninsular; and ASEM 4 in 2002 in Denmark, which adopted the Copenhagen Political Declaration for Peace on the Korean Peninsular and the Copenhagen Declaration on Cooperation against International Terrorism.

    Some 2.3 billion people live in ASEM state members, representing 37 percent of the world population. Their combined gross domestic product (GDP) in 2002 stood at more than 14.8 trillion US dollars, or 46 percent of the world GDP. Their total value of trade in goods was over 2.7 trillion dollars or 43 percent of the world trade. Enditem