Backgrounder: APEC High-Level Meeting on Human Capacity Building

The Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) High Level Meeting on Human Capacity Building (HCB) is to be held in Beijing on May 15-16. The following is a brief introduction to it:

The gathering, the first of its kind in the APEC history, has a theme of "New Economy, New Strategy: Cooperation and Innovation to Build Human Capacity for Common Prosperity."

It aims to promote the quality of human resources and helping realize common prosperity in the Asian-Pacific region, making the APEC members fully recognize the new challenges of the new economy and globalization, setting up new development concepts and building up the idea of cooperation.

It will assess the challenges ahead in building and exploiting the new economy, the importance of the human factor and the preparedness of APEC economies, explore new ways in which businesses and educational and training institutions are now working on this respect and discuss future strategic options, discuss better policy approaches under which APEC and its governments of members can work in a more innovative and effective partnership with businesses, educators and trainers.

The event, jointly sponsored by China and Brunei, was initiated by Chinese President Jiang Zemin and Brunei Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, and endorsed by APEC leaders, at the eighth Informal APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting in Bandar Seri Begawan, capital of Brunei in November 2000.

Chinese President Jiang Zemin and Bolkiah are expected to address its opening ceremony.

APEC Ministerial Meetings On Human Resources Development Since 1996

The Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) High Level Meeting on Human Capacity Building (HCB) is to be held in Beijing on 15-16 May. The following is a chronology of the APEC Ministerial Meetings on Human Resources Development (HRD) since 1996.

The first APEC Ministerial Meeting on Human Resources Development (HRD) was held in Manila, the Philippines, on January 10-11, 1996. The theme of the meeting was "Preparing the APEC Workforce for the 21st Century: Transition and Challenges."

A joint statement, issued after the meeting, said that ministers agreed to create a labor market information network, develop small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), facilitating the mobility of personnel and information exchange, and develop leadership skills for managers.

The second APEC Ministerial Meeting on HRD was held in Seoul, South Korea, on September 25-26, 1997, with a theme of "The Strategy for Developing Human Resources under a New Environment and Challenges."

Participants, in a joint statement, appealed to the APEC's HRD Working Group to adopt strategies such as fostering the linkages between learning and work, improving skills of cooperation and participation, enhancing labor and management participation in HRD as well as the participation of women and youth.

The third APEC Ministerial Meeting on HRD was held in Washington on July 28-29, 1999, with the goal of encouraging regional cooperation and strengthening the capacity to mitigate the effects of future economic volatility on workers.

The joint statement of the meeting reaffirmed the commitment on recognizing human resources development issues as central to the economic agenda. The statement put emphasis on implementing effective, efficient and inclusive labor market systems and social safety nets, as well as building the workplace of the 21st century.

The fourth APEC Ministerial Meeting on HRD will be held in Japan in September this year.

A Brief Introduction to APEC

The following is a brief introduction to the APEC: APEC, one of the most important economic cooperation bodies in the Asia-Pacific region, was initiated in November 1989 at the proposal of former Australian Prime Minister Robert Hawke in Canberra, Australia, as a forum for informal discussion between the six ASEAN members (Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand) and their six dialogue partners (Australia, the United States, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand and Canada) around the Pacific. APEC's goal is to advance the economic dynamism and the sense of community in the Asia- Pacific region.

The Seoul Declaration, adopted by the third ministerial meeting in South Korea on November 14, 1991, defined the objectives of APEC to enhance the positive gains, both for the region and the world economy as a whole, resulting from increasing economic interdependence; to develop and strengthen the open multilateral trading system; and to reduce barriers to trade in goods and services and investment.

According to the declaration, cooperation among APEC's members will be governed by "the principle of mutual benefit and a commitment to open dialogue and consensus-building, with equal respect for the views of all participants."

Under the principles of "one China" and that "distinctions be made between the sovereign states and regional economies," the People's Republic of China, Hong Kong of China and Chinese Taipei joined APEC at the third ministerial meeting held in South Korea in September 1991. APEC later expanded to include Mexico and Papua New Guinea in 1993, Chile in 1994 and Peru, Russia and Vietnam in 1998.

APEC now has 21 members: Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Chinese Taipei, Thailand, the United States and Vietnam.

APEC's observers are the Secretariat of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (PECC) and the South Pacific Forum (SPF).

APEC's organization includes informal APEC Economic Leaders' Meetings (AELM), Ministerial Meetings, Senior Officials Meetings (SOM), Committees and Groups, the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) and the Secretariat.

APEC spans an area of some 62,311.8 square kilometers with an estimated population of 2,489.29 million in 2000.

English is APEC's official working language. Its budget was 3.86 million U.S. dollars in 1999. Its 21 member economies had a combined gross domestic product (GDP) of over 18 trillion US dollars in 1999, accounting for 43.85 percent of the global trade.






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