The Economic Leaders' Meeting of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation
(APEC) is expected to send a strong message of support for
multilateral trading systems, including the launch of a new round
of World Trade Organization talks.
It
was revealed by Wang Guangya on October 14, chair of APEC Senior
Officials' Meeting (SOM), who said fighting economic slowdown has
been a priority issue at APEC meetings since the beginning of this
year and has attracted more attention after the terrorist attacks
in the United States on September 11.
APEC members are determined to become united to move forward to
implement the Bogor Goals and push forward the Ecotech (economic
and technical cooperation) agenda even taking into account all
uncertainties, all slowdowns and difficulties.
"It will be a strong message coming from this APEC meeting," said
Wang, also China's vice-foreign minister, in Shanghai.
"We want this region to recover. We want to see more economic
growth in this region and we want other regions to believe that the
Asia-Pacific region is still hopeful and confident in its economic
prospects," he added.
APEC accounts for 45 per cent of the world's population and nearly
half of all global trade.
APEC SOM are held regularly prior to every ministerial meeting. The
SOM makes recommendations to ministers and carries out their
decisions.
Senior officials have previously held formal meetings in Beijing in
February, Shenzhen in June and Dalian in August.
Wang said the two-day informal meeting of senior officials,
starting today, will focus on preparation for the final documents:
the leaders' declaration, the ministerial statement and the
statement by leaders on terrorist activities. It will try to wrap
up what has been discussed and see if there is any area that has
not been touched upon during the last three sessions.
APEC economic leaders are expected to exchange views on terrorist
activities under the agenda item on the regional and global
economic situation. Wang said the adjustment to the agenda "is only
natural" since the APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting will be the first
gathering by leaders following the terrorist attack and people all
feel there are negative implications for the regional and world
economy after the terrorist attacks.
First established as a loose 12-member forum in 1989 to promote
open markets and globalization, APEC has been a catalyst to
removing trade barriers on a wide range of goods in the region, and
has expanded to 21 members.
The Bogor Goals, formed in 1994, state that developed and
developing economies will realize trade and investment
liberalization in 2010 and 2020 respectively.
With more members joining APEC, Ecotech has become another pillar
of APEC process.
But there has always been a lack of interest and specific
activities in support of the Ecotech agenda though it has been much
talked about a lot over the past couple of years, Wang said.
APEC activities for this particular year have been pushed forward
on several fronts to make sure that the process of APEC this year
is furthered on a balanced basis, Wang said.
The leading regional economic forum has made progress on the trade
and in vestment liberalization and facilitation agenda by sending a
strong message into trade areas.
It
has also carried out a number of activities and made substantial
progress on pushing forward the Ecotech agenda.
China, as host of APEC meetings this year, is trying to bring
together the interests and concerns of different APEC members and
striving to create a win-win system, he said.
"As chair, you have to be both neutral and creative," he said.
By
successfully hosting these APEC meetings, Wang believed links,
exchanges and cooperation between China and other APEC members will
be strengthened.
"It will be beneficial to Chinese reform and opening-up," he
added.
Some 70 per cent of China's export earnings come from other APEC
member economies and 70 per cent of overseas investment poured into
China comes from this region.
Taking into account the economic slowdown in the United States, the
lingering stagnation of the Japanese economy and a number of ASEAN
(Association of Southeast Asian Nations) economies still in
difficulty after the 1997 financial crisis, Wang said this year was
not easy for APEC and its host China.
But Wang said China wants to make sure that this year would be a
forward-looking one through the support of all APEC members. "A
year where we can set agenda for APEC not only for this particular
year, but also for the years to come," Wang said.
He
regarded being SOM chair this year as a learning process. Wang has
studied more economic matters to become familiar with all those
terms and issues with particular focus on the background to each
issue.
"I
have enjoyed being the SOM chair for this particular year," Wang
said, adding that it has given him a different angle from which to
look at global issues.
(
China Daily
10/15/2001)