HANOI, June 14 (Xinhua) -- The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Southeast Asia Regional Forum 2016 kicked off in Vietnam's capital Hanoi on Tuesday, discussing ways to boost productivity and inclusiveness in Southeast Asia.
During the two-day forum which was first held in Vietnam, officials and experts from OECD, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), and Vietnam exchanged views on three sessions, namely Boosting Productivity in Southeast Asia, Integrating ASEAN Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) into Global Value Chains and Inclusiveness-the Social Agenda, said the forum's website.
Speaking at the opening ceremony of the forum, Vietnamese Deputy Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son said boosting productivity and inclusiveness is an essential need of ASEAN countries during the process of building ASEAN Community.
Vietnam always strives its best to promote integration and narrow development gap among ASEAN, Vietnam's state-run news agency VNA quoted Son as saying.
In order to boost productivity and inclusiveness, Son proposed ASEAN countries to focus on creating more productivity jobs, making good preparations on institutional, infrastructure, and personnel issues as well as making use of regional economic linkages to narrow development gaps.
OECD Deputy Secretary-General Doug Frantz, for his part, said at the ceremony that despite maintaining optimistic economic growth after 2008-2009 financial crisis, the ASEAN countries are now facing challenges including productivity slowdown, increase in social inequality and the risk of falling into the "middle income trap."
In order to solve these problems, the OECD official recommended that ASEAN countries need to enhance investment into education and training, improve skills for workers and business environment, support SMEs, as well as ensure social welfare among others.
