[APEC Meeting in Hanoi]
1. It has been almost two years since I was last at Hanoi. This must be my tenth visit since the early 90's. Each time I come, the city looks better. It is a charming city dotted with lakes and old French colonial buildings. The Vietnamese are making steady progress and has been growing faster than any other country in ASEAN, right through the Asian financial crisis till now. In 15-20 years time, Vietnam will be a major force in ASEAN. They are an intelligent, hardworking and determined people. Many young Vietnamese will head off to atttend night classes after work. Thousands of them study in Singapore.



2. Singapore has excellent links with Vietnam. We are one of their major investors and trading partners. There is now a sizeable Singapore community in Ho Chi Minh City number over 2000. Tiger Beer is big here.

3. In a methodical way, Vietnam has been upgrading its capability, step by step, to hold conferences from the ASEAN Summit to the Asia-Europe Summit to, now, the APEC Summit. The new conference centre is spacious and well-equipped with an attractive architectural design. It has a huge forecourt of fountains. 25 Leaders from around the Pacific will descend on this city with a history of a thousand years from tomorrow, among them President Bush, President Hu Jintao, President Putin and PM Abe. We have just completed the ministerial meeting which the Vietnamese Foreign and Commerce Ministers co-chaired with great skill and diplomacy.

4. In 1975, the North took over the South. In 1978, Vietnamese Army divisions crossed the Mekong to vanquish the Khmer Rouge, threatening Thailand and the rest of us in Southeast Asia. In 1989, they pulled out and, not long afterwards, Vietnam joined ASEAN. With the Cold War far behind us, we are entering a new phase of peace and cooperation in the Asia-Pacific. The North Korean nuclear problem is still a headache but the prospects on the whole are bright. APEC is now a premier organisation and, for the first time, the Leaders will be talking about a Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific encompassing over half the world's economy.