The Concluding Senior Officials' Meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) opened in Singapore Sunday, kicking off the APEC Leaders' Week.

The theme of this year's APEC Singapore meetings is "Sustaining Growth, Connecting the Region". It is expected that when leaders of the 21 APEC members meet on Nov. 14-15, they will focus on how to secure an economic recovery and fight trade protectionism.

Issues of regional economic integration, the Doha Round of negotiations under the World Trade Organization and climate change are also expected to be high on the leaders' agenda.

Senior officials' meetings of the APEC are a series of meetings held three or four times a year, with the concluding session being convened to prepare agenda and documents for the subsequent ministerial and leaders' meetings.

At the two-day closed-door meeting, senior officials will discuss a range of issues, including how to secure that economic growth can become more inclusive so that every member can benefit from the growth, according to the organizer of the meeting.

The officials will deliberate a proposal to set APEC-wide targets in five priority areas to improve the ease of doing business in the region, with the aim of endorsing these targets by the APEC ministerial meeting from Nov. 10 to Nov. 12.

The five priority areas include APEC's ease of starting a business, getting credit and trading across borders.

How to move towards a Free Trade Area for the Asia Pacific will also be on their agenda, said the organizer.

China hoped the APEC leaders' meeting in Singapore would help boost global economic recovery, a Chinese Foreign Ministry official said in Beijing Friday.

"China hopes concrete cooperation plan could be laid out during the summit to help the world out of the international financial crisis and resume economic growth," Vice Foreign Minister He Yafei said at a press briefing.

China also hoped the meeting could show clear opposition to trade protectionism and support to the Doha Round negotiation, and make progress in promoting regional economic integration and improving investment environment, he said.

The vice-minister said that China hoped the APEC would set up a review mechanism to assess the Bogor Goals, which stipulate that industrialized economies of the APEC should achieve the goal of free and open trade and investment no later than 2010 and developing economies no later than 2020.

The APEC forum was established in 1989 to capitalize on the growing interdependence of Asia-Pacific economies, and it has grown to become one of the world's most important regional groups.

APEC's 21 member economies are home to more than 2.7 billion people and represent approximately 54 percent of world GDP and 44 percent of world trade.

Since APEC's inception, members have experienced an average annual GDP growth of 7 percent, versus 5 percent growth in non- APEC economies.