APEC SOM II Related Meetings Open in ShenzhenRelated meetings of the Second Senior Officials Meeting (SOM II) of the 13th APEC Ministerial Meeting opened in Shenzhen, this special economic zone of south China's Guangdong Province here Saturday.Various committees and forums are expected to discuss the specific work of APEC in their respective fields at the related meetings, which will last till May 31. The SOM II, to be held on June 1-2, will be presided over by Wang Guangya, vice foreign minister of China and SOM Chair. Senior officials from 21 APEC members will gather in Shenzhen to continue their discussions on trade and investment liberalization, economic and technical cooperation of APEC, new economy and regional macro-policy dialogue, with the aim of preparing for the 9th APEC Informal Leadership Meeting and the 13th Ministerial Meeting. The SOM II will also hold a retreat on June 1 to exchange views on issues like how APEC can contribute to the early launching of a new-round of WTO negotiations. China plays host to all the four SOM meetings this year and other APEC-related conferences, in the run-up to the APEC informal leadership meeting scheduled in Shanghai October. The SOM I was held February in Beijing. APEC, one of the key economic forums in the region, has established a working mechanism ranging from informal leadership meetings to ministerial meetings, senior officials' meetings, secretariat, committees, groups and advisory council. Founded in 1989, APEC stands as the highest level economic cooperation forum of the Asia-Pacific region, covering cooperative fields such as free trade and investment, economic and technical cooperation, dialogue on macro-economic policies. The organization so far has 21 members -- China, Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Hong Kong of China, Indonesia, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Mexico, Malaysia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Chinese Taipei, Thailand, the United States and Vietnam. Brief Introduction of APEC's SOMSOMs are held three to four times a year as tune-ups for the annual Ministerial Meeting of foreign and economic ministers. At the meeting, senior officials from APEC make recommendations to the ministers and implement their decisions. They oversee and coordinate the budgets and working agendas of each APEC forum.The SOM has four committees and 11 Working Groups. The committees are the Committee on Trade and Investment (CTI), Economic Committee (EC), Budget and Management Committee (BMC) and SOM ECOTECH Sub-Committee (ESC). CTI, founded in 1993, handles issues of liberalization and facilitation of trade and investment. It serves the senior officials. Its main responsibilities are to monitor the implementation by subordinate bodies of the collective action plan made in the Osaka Action Agenda of 1995, examines and discusses reports regarding the structure of subordinate bodies, and carries out senior officials instructions. Its work is related to the fields of tariffs, non-tariff measures, services, deregulation, dispute mediation, Uruguay Round implementation, investment, customs procedures, standards and conformance, mobility of business people, intellectual property rights, competition policy, government procurement and rules of origin. EC, established by APEC Ministers in November 1994, aims to enhance APEC's capacity to analyze economic problems and trends. BMC, set up in 1993, advises APEC senior officials on budgetary, administrative and managerial issues. It assesses and makes recommendations on the budget structure, studies budget requests, drafts the annual APEC budget and examines all questions relating to the APEC budget and budgetary process. ESC was established in 1998 to assist the SOM in coordinating and managing APEC's ECOTECH agenda and identifying useful cooperative initiatives. In addition, the SOM Ad Hoc Advisory Group on Gender Integration (AGGI) and the SOM Steering Group on E-commerce are the two task forces of the SOM. |
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