The Vietnamese delegation was led by Mr Tran Quoc Khanh - the Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade and attendees included representatives from relevant ministries and departments of MOIT.

ASEAN Economic Ministers approved ten initiatives and priorities for Brunei's economic cooperation during the ASEAN Chair Year 2021 at the meeting. These initiatives and priorities are organised into three main directions: recovery, digitalization, and sustainability, with a focus on critical areas such as trade facilitation, tourism, energy, and information technology. Information, minerals, and long-term development… Many initiatives have been launched and supported that inherit the cooperation contents of ASEAN that have been implemented in the past, particularly the continuation of the cooperation results of ASEAN 2020 when Vietnam is the Chairman of ASEAN.

Given that the Covid-19 pandemic is still having serious consequences, the ASEAN Economic Ministers also discussed ASEAN's many efforts in economic recovery during and after the pandemic to overcome the pandemic while maintaining economic development, particularly the expansion of ASEAN's list of essential goods to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic. This list is an initiative that was adopted on the sidelines of the 37th ASEAN Conference, which was held in an online format in Vietnam on November 10, 2020, and will be discussed further with the goal of expanding it in the first months of 2021.

The conference also agreed on priorities Annual Agenda 2021 in the economic channel includes 68 different contents, trade in goods, trade in services, investment, facilitation of the movement of skilled workers and business visitors, competition, consumer protection, intellectual property, e-commerce; micro, small and medium enterprises,...

Speaking at the conference, Vietnam expressed its support for Brunei's initiatives during the ASEAN Chair year of 2021, and stated that Vietnam will continue to work closely with other ASEAN countries to implement the ASEAN Economic Community's common goals. Furthermore, Vietnam shared its experience and efforts to control the Covid-19 pandemic with other countries in order to ensure economic development goals while strictly implementing ASEAN and ASEAN+ commitments.

In addition to intra-regional economic cooperation issues, the ministers discussed external economic cooperation issues such as reviewing the ASEAN-India Trade in Goods Agreement (AITIGA), cooperation between ASEAN and India, and cooperation between ASEAN and the European Union (EU). The ASEAN Economic Ministers have all stated that they are working to speed up the approval of the RCEP Agreement in order to contribute to the economic recovery process following the Covid-19 pandemic.

ASEAN Economic Ministers met with the ASEAN Business Advisory Council during the Conference to discuss the Council's recommendations in a variety of areas, including healthcare, dealing with non-tariff measures, and strengthening public-private cooperation in the ASEAN region and between ASEAN and its partners.