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Chinese Trade Minister Meets APEC Members' Officials
China's trade minister Shi Guangsheng met Tuesday with six trade officials from members of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), who are here to attend the 13th APEC Ministerial Meeting scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday.
The six officials are Hwang Doo-yun, trade minister of the Republic of Korea, Jim Sutton, minister for trade negotiations of New Zealand, Hsin-I Lin, head of the delegation from Chinese Taipei, Pehin Dato Abdul Rahman Taib, minister of industry and primary resources of Brunei, Rafidah Aziz, minister of international trade of Malaysia, and George Yeo Yong-Boon, minister for trade and industry of Singapore.
Shi, co-chair of the Ministerial Meeting and Chinese minister of foreign trade and economic cooperation, said preparations for the meeting are going on smoothly, thanks to the participation, understanding and support of all APEC member economies.
He expressed the belief that the ministerial meeting and the upcoming APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting will be a success.
Given the differences in terms of economic development, Shi called for enhanced cooperation between the developed and developing members, so as to push ahead the APEC process of trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, as well as the economic and technical cooperation.
Such cooperation should be carried out on the basis of the accords reached through consultations, and on the initiatives of the 21 member economies, he said.
Regarding the urgency to initiate the new round of multilateral trade talks, the minister said that during the APEC Meeting of Ministers Responsible for Trade (APEC MRT) in June, all the parties had reached a consensus on the issue, Shi said. It sent a strong signal to the world that the new round of talks could be held as scheduled, he said.
Shi said that it has become a common concern how the world economy would develop under the current situation. In the process of globalization, developed nations and developing countries have to achieve common development. Participation by developed nations alone would result in imbalance in the world economy, affecting world stability, he said.
Under the current situation, no country can develop its economy without international cooperation, he said.
All those present at the meeting congratulated China on hosting the APEC meetings and its upcoming entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO).
They were of the opinion that so far this year's APEC meetings, with China as the host, have made positive achievements. They expressed hope that China would continue to play a constructive role in promoting multilateral trade talks, building human resources capacity, pushing forward trade and investment liberalization and facilitation and economic and technical cooperation, and in developing the New Economy and E-business.
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