Three photos taken by Vietnamese photographers have claimed the top three prizes at the APEC Photo Contest 2017.

The winners were announced by the APEC Secretariat’s Executive Director Alan Bollard at the Concluding Senior Officials’ Meeting on Tuesday morning in the central Vietnamese city of Da Nang, according to a press release issued by the APEC Secretariat the same day.

According to the announcement, Tinh Than won the first prize for his photo titled “Sunset Life," while Huong Vinh with “The Sea Flower” and Dinh Thuong Tran with “Building the Flower Industry” were awarded the second and third prizes.

The Popular Choice Award went to “Up and Forward” by Yu-Han Kung from Taiwan.

In order to reach a wider audience, for the first time this year the contest welcomed entries from Instagram through the APEC Secretariat’s official account, @apec, with the hashtag #TradeforAll.

A special “Influencer Award” was also introduced and the winner was selected by the number of likes the photo received.

The first winner of the award was Oky Arisandi from Indonesia whose photo titled “Harvest Time” received nearly 3,000 likes.

The APEC Photo Contest is an annual initiative of the APEC Secretariat to collect stakeholders’ views on APEC’s messages and priorities.

The contest seeks the public’s visual interpretation of APEC’s priorities for 2017 including promoting sustainable, innovative and inclusive growth; deepening regional economic integration; strengthening small businesses’ competitiveness; and enhancing food security and sustainable agriculture.

The winners were evaluated by a judging panel consisting of world-renowned photojournalists, industry experts and senior public officials including APEC Executive Director Alan Bollard, AFP Photo Editor for North America Eric Baradat, award-winning photographer Palani Mohan, multi-year APEC Photo Contest winner and photographer Truong Huu Hung, and Permanent Deputy Foreign Minister and Chair of APEC 2017 Bui Thanh Son.

Now in its seventh year, the 2017 contest received 2,126 entries from various APEC member economies including: Australia, Brunei Darussalam, China, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Taiwan, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Below are the winning photos of APEC Photo Contest 2017:

"The Sea Flower" by Huong Vinh

"Building the Flower Industry" by Dinh Thuong Tran

"Up and Forward" by Yu-Han Kung

"Harvest Time" by Oky Arisandi