APEC off to smooth beginning APEC, beginning, off, smooth

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APEC off to smooth beginning

　

Senior officials from Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation organ-ization's 21member economies ended the first session one day ahead of schedule yesterday with consensus on commit-ments to free trade and investment.

　　The informal meeting of senior officials,their fourth gathering this year,was originally scheduled for two days.The shortened session focused on joint efforts to tear down trade barriers and shore up the fragile global economy,said Wang Guangya,Chinese vice foreign minister and chair of the meeting.

　　Wang said the meeting ran more smoothly than expected.

　　It set the agenda for this week's two-day annual gathering of foreign affairs and foreign trade ministers that starts tomorrow and the summit of APEC economic leaders this weekend.

　　Participants at yesterday's meeting discussed trade and investment liberalization and facilitation,economic and technical cooperation,the new economy and APEC expansion.

　　The senior officials also worked on a draft for the ministerial statement,known as the Shanghai Accord,and the declaration for the APEC summit.

　　Member economies will fine-tune a statement on re-affirming their commitment to the Bogor Goals,which seek free trade and investment in the Asia-Pacific region by 2010for developed countries and 2020for developing nations,said Wang.

　　"The main objectives of the Shanghai Accord are to make sure all member economies are serious about their commitment to push forward free trade and strengthen economic coop-eration,"Wang said.

　　The goals were set at an earlier summit in the Indonesian city of Bogor in 1994,but many members and business leaders have been frustrated by the slow pace of implementation.

　　This year's APEC meetings are expected to be a mile-stone in pushing forward the progress made by the trade-focused organization in the future,like the Bogor summit and the Seattle gathering in 1993,when the APEC Economic Leaders'Meeting was held for the first time,the minister noted.

　　The proposed state-ment was nearly completed after a late-night working session held by senior officials on Sunday,said New Zealand's APEC representative George Troup.

　　Senior officials decided to hold a general meeting today to discuss anti-terrorism issues,Troup told Shanghai Daily.

　　Fighting terrorism in the wake of the Sept-ember 11attacks on the United States was not part of the official agenda for the senior officials'meeting,said Zhang Qiyue,spokeswoman for China Secretariat for APEC 2001,noting anti-terrorism talks will not overshadow APEC's trade focus.

　　"APEC ministers will discuss anti-terrorism at a breakfast hosted by Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan on Thursday,"she added."APEC economic leaders will also touch on the issue at their meetings later this week."

　　Leaders hope to reach an agreement to counter terrorism through closer cooperation in areas such as money laundering,according to APEC officials.

　　"To discuss anti-terrorism issues is the common wish of all member economies,not just the desire of the United States,"said Wang.

　　"But we won't change APEC's role as an economic forum,since the main objec-tive of APEC is to promote economic cooperation."