Officials Vow to Advance APEC Process for Common ProsperitySenior Officials from 21 economies of the Asian-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) have pledged in their just-concluded Beijing meeting to further the APEC process and pursue common prosperity.The first Senior Officials Meeting (SOM I) of the APEC 2001 and its related meetings, which lasted February 11-19, is the first major event to kick off the series of meetings this year concerning this most important economic cooperation forum in the Asia-Pacific rim. Outlining this year's major tasks of APEC, the officials discussed the regional economic situation, globalization, the new economy, and efforts to promote the liberalization of trade and investment and economic and technical cooperation. The meeting was presided over by Chinese vice foreign minister and SOM chairman Wang Guangya, urging for an early admission of China into the WTO along with other APEC members that are applying for membership. Among others, officials reiterated their strong commitment to pushing forward the APEC process and joint efforts to deal with challenges brought about by the globalization and the new economy and current uncertainties over growth in some economies, with potential repercussions throughout the region. Representatives agreed on the theme for APEC 2001: Meeting challenges in the new century: achieving common prosperity through participation and cooperation. They also catered to sub-themes: sharing the benefits of globalization and the new economy, advancing trade and investment, promoting sustainable growth. Sources claim that these themes will certainly serve as the guidelines for the organization and steer the following ministerial meetings and the informal leadership meeting, as well as other related activities in the whole year. The SOM stood firm by the continued commitment of member economies to the APEC process as a major regional vehicle for promoting free and open trade and investment and economic and technical cooperation. The officials reaffirmed their efforts to achieve the Bogor Goals for free trade and investment by 2010 and 2020 for developed and developing economies respectively through the implementation of Individual Action Plan (IAP). In this respect, the SOM committed to work for an early launch of the WTO New Round on a balanced and sufficiently broad-based agenda, stressing the need for concrete capacity building programs to help APEC members implement WTO agreements. They also called for renewed momentum towards the goals and objectives set forth by leaders through focused and action- oriented activities, and looked forward to the APEC Shanghai process under China's chairmanship in delivering tangible outcomes. The officials consented that cooperation and participation are essential to share the benefits of progress in technology and globalization more equitably. Aware of the challenges of the new economy and the ever-growing trend of globalization, many developing members, in particular, called for more substantial progress in economic and technological cooperation among APEC members, so as to raise their capability to deal with the challenges. They emphasized that APEC members should increase exchange of views on macro-economic policy, so as to create a favorable environment for a sustained development of the regional economy. The officials agreed to establish a special working group to outline the purpose and principles for developing information technology and e-commerce in the region, on the basis of the Action Agenda on the New Economy set forth last year. |
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