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When world leaders attending the summit meeting of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation posed for a family-like snapshot at the Mexican resort of Los Cabos on Sunday, they knew their smiles were important in beefing up confidence in the Pacific Rim and beyond.
As the world economy has yet to regain full vitality and terrorism lingers as a serious threat to international peace and development, decisions and commitments made by APEC leaders are sure to exert far-reaching influence.
As expected, the promotion of economic growth and anti-terrorism have been two themes of this year's annual summit meeting, the 10th of its kind since 1989.
The 21 economies agreed to strengthen economic growth by implementing the APEC vision of free, open and prosperous economies. They also vowed to press ahead with global multilateral trade negotiations set in Doha, Qatar under the auspices of the World Trade Organization (WTO) 10 months ago.
To move the Doha Round of trade talks further ahead, the leaders called for the economies to meet timelines set on the WTO agenda for negotiations on such areas as agricultural reform, market access and the abolition of all forms of agricultural export subsidies.
The meeting also included a series of trade facilitation measures, which will be highly instrumental in ushering in brighter prospects for regional economic development and co-operation.
Making up the largest regional forum on economic co-operation in the Asia and Pacific region, the 21 APEC members account for 60 per cent of the global economic output and half the world's trade. APEC now exerts more influence on the shaping of an open and global multilateral trading system.
According to an APEC report released just before the meeting, the APEC region can be expected to lead the global recovery as most APEC economies will build growth momentum in the near future. Such forecasts could have been a source of optimism to people in this region, had it not been for the shadow of terrorism.
In the worst revival of international terrorism after the September 11 terrorism attacks against the United States, several APEC members became the targets of assaults recently. From the deadly bombing on the island of Bali in Indonesia on October 12 to the latest hostage-taking in Moscow by a group of Chechen rebels, resurgence of terrorist operations poses a severe challenge to peace and security in the region.
APEC leaders have resolved to take tougher measures against terrorist activities. In separate statements, they reaffirmed their position on counter-terrorism adopted at the Shanghai summit last October and acknowledged the need to immediately combat the terrorist threats to international peace, security and economic sustainability in the region.
The decisions will certainly contribute to global efforts against terrorism and be welcomed by all peace-loving people in the world.
As an active and responsible APEC member, China has always advocated the enhancement of the "APEC approach," which features mutual respect, equality, mutual benefit, consensus and voluntarism.
It is our strong belief that a growing and more prosperous China will undoubtedly play a constructive role in ensuring peace and development in the region and the world at large.
We also believe that APEC members will take concrete measures to honour their commitments on peace and development for the benefit of the people.
(China Daily October 29, 2002)
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