The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) 2008 Leaders' Week kicked off in Lima, the Peruvian capital, on Sunday.
The Leaders' Week started with the Concluding Senior Officials (SOM) Meeting on Nov. 16-17, and will be followed by the 2nd Small and Medium Enterprise Summit on Nov. 17, the 20th APEC Ministerial Meeting, the APEC Business Advisory Council 4th Meeting for 2008 on Nov. 17-20, the "Invest in Peru" Forum on Nov.17, the APEC 2008 Chief Executive Officers (CEO) Summit on Nov. 20-22, and the 16th APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting on Nov. 22-23.
More than 100 delegates of the Asia-Pacific region will attend the Concluding Senior Offcials Meeting, which will collect the results from the three Senior Officials Meetings and related meetings held in Lima in February and August, and in Arequipa in May.
Topics for discussion at Sunday's informal meeting include global economic affairs, the support to Doha round negotiations, APEC's Regional Economic Integration Agenda, Corporate Social Responsibility, APEC Institutional Reform and the preparation for the Leaders' Ministerial Meetings.
The SOM meetings so far this year have already addressed several topics such economic and regional integration, the need to strengthen structural reform and support to multilateral trade and advances on the Doha Round.
APEC, established in Australia in 1989, groups Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, China's Hong Kong, Chinese Taipei, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, the United States and Vietnam.
The chairmanship rotates among its members with Peru holding the chair this year.
Some 3,600 delegates, including top leaders, ministers and senior officials, are expected to attend the Leaders' Week to discuss the ongoing global financial crisis, human security initiatives, food and energy security, climate change, structural reform and corporate social responsibility.
(Xinhua News Agency November 17, 2008)
