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Shanghai, China, October 17, 2001
Dear Colleagues,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I am so glad to have you with us in Shanghai in this golden
autumn for a review of all the agenda items of the APEC Ministerial
Meeting. Allow me to extend, on behalf of the Chinese Government,
our warm welcome to all of you.
As you have seen for yourselves, Shanghai is a vigorous and
dynamic city and an epitome of the rapid economic and social
development in China. It is making momentous progress in its
modernization drive thanks to the development efforts. The
ancient "Oriental Pearl" is shining more splendidly
in the new century.
The past decade is also one of rapid expansion of regional
cooperation and remarkable achievements of APEC. APEC has
set up Bogor goals of achieving trade and investment liberalization
by 2010 for developed members and by 2020 for developing ones.
APEC has created a unique approach featuring a combination
of individual and collective actions. It has vigorously promoted
the development of a multilateral trading regime and carried
out various forms of economic and technical cooperation. There
is no doubt that APEC has become one of the most important
economic forum in the region and even in the world. It has
provided rare opportunities for dialogue and exchange of views
by Leaders of member economies in the Asia-Pacific and for
discussions on frontier issues related to the global and regional
economy. It has played a guiding role in the formulation of
policy frameworks on many issues. Therefore, APEC has made
positive contribution to maintaining peace and stability in
the Asia-Pacific and enhancing its economic prosperity and
development.
The APEC success is attributable not only to the common aspiration
of all its members for a sustainable economic growth through
cooperation but also to the APEC Approach of voluntarism,
consensus-building, flexibility, and gradualism, an approach
that suits the region. A more important factor for its success
is that it has stood at the forefront and advanced with the
times in response to the latest development in the global
and regional economy.
This is the first APEC ministerial meeting in the new century.
We are faced with many new opportunities and challenges. The
economic growth of the world and the Asia-Pacific has, on
the whole, slowed down. The impact of the terrorist attacks
on 11 September on the economy has become visible. How to
promote growth and restore confidence in the market is an
issue on the top of our agenda. Meanwhile, the development
of economic globalization and the New Economy has brought
about more benefits and business opportunities for the region
and people. But, how to enable people from all sectors to
benefit from it without widening the development gaps between
them is a challenge we must take up. The multilateral trading
system is also at a crucial juncture. The WTO Conference to
be held in Doha in November has attracted worldwide attention.
In addition, how to give full play to the unique role of APEC,
deepen cooperation and maintain steady economic growth in
the region against the general economic slowdown in the Asia-Pacific
and the world? These are the issues we must address.
In view of this, we have decided on the theme of this year's
APEC meetings, that is, "Meeting New Challenges in the
New Century: Achieving Common Prosperity through Participation
and Cooperation". In the coming two days, we will discuss
the following issues centering around this theme:
I. Advancing trade and investment. We will further exchange
views within APEC on how to contribute to the 4th WTO Ministerial
Conference and make specific recommendations on capacity building.
The individual action plans for trade and investment liberalization,
trade facilitation principles and other new initiatives will
be main topics of our discussion.
II.Sharing the benefits of globalization and New Economy.
We will discuss ways to strengthen the tripartite cooperation
among government, business sectors and academic and training
institutions on the basis of the outcome of the APEC High-Level
Meeting on Human Capacity Building. APEC should establish
a more effective participation mechanism in the course of
economic and technical cooperation. Meanwhile, we will endorse
the e-APEC Strategy, a long-term, action-oriented strategy
for APEC to build a digital society in the region.
III. Promoting a sustainable economic growth of the Asia-Pacific
region. We hope that our discussions will help us to expand
consensus on ways to respond to the challenges facing the
global economic situation. We should take effective fiscal
and financial measures to stabilize the market, restore confidence
and facilitate growth so as to enable all the APEC economies
to come out, as soon as possible, of the economic slowdown
and the shadow of the 11 September terrorist attacks and onto
the road to a sustained and steady growth. To this end, we
will continue to cooperate with finance ministers, increase
dialogues on macro-economic policies among the APEC members
and make progress in capacity building in the financial sector,
with a view to laying a solid foundation for the future economic
development in the region.
At the same time, we will forge closer ties with a wide range
of groups and organizations and expand exchanges and cooperation
with people from all walks of life so as to enable the business
community, young people, women and people from other sectors
to benefit from APEC economic cooperation.
Dear Colleagues,
Autumn is a season for harvest. Thanks to the hard work by
our officials over the past few months, all the preparation
work for this year's APEC meetings is by and large completed.
I am convinced that this Ministerial Meeting will produce
rich deliverables in all the above-mentioned fields to be
submitted to this year's Economic Leaders Meeting. I hope
that we will not only produce practical results but also inject
fresh vigor to APEC development in its second decade and work
out a blueprint for its future development.
I am sure that I can count on you for your support to China
in chairing this meeting. I hope that you will demonstrate
a practical, flexible and cooperative spirit in the coming
two days. I believe that with your close collaboration, this
meeting will be a great success.
Thank you.
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