 |
APEC Business Leaders Urged to Speed Up Open Trade, Investment
APEC economic leaders Wednesday were urged to speed up open and free trade and investment in the face of the pronounced global economic slowdown in 2001.
APEC economies must accelerate progress towards trade and investment liberalization as stated in the Bogor Goals, Peter Woo, chairman of the Hong Kong Trade Development Council said when introducing an annual report of the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC).
"We encourage leaders to instill the necessary sense of urgency and commitment to fully liberalize trade and investment in accordance with the Bogor Goals and we respectfully urge leaders to instruct ministers and officials to achieve these," said Woo, who was one of the three representatives of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region to the APEC advisory council.
According to Woo, the report, which will be submitted to Chinese President Jiang Zemin, who chairs APEC this year, highlights four important messages, including a strong advocate that APEC demonstrate its support for the launch of a new WTO Round at the WTO Ministerial Conference in Doha in November.
The report also alerts leaders to the impending threat of financial contagion, saying that APEC should counter the current economic uncertainty with decisive measures to stimulate economic growth and accelerate financial reforms.
APEC should develop hand-in-hand a balanced approach to globalization that combines market opening, capacity-building and full participation, the report says.
In This Section
|