Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) members are seeking ways to enhance their economic and technical co-operation (ECOTECH).

``ECOTECH is one of the essential parts of the APEC mandate,'' said George Troup, New Zealand APEC Senior Official.

``APEC is helping the governments of the region come to terms with the challenges of globalization and the new economy,'' he said.

``We do that partly by liberalization which creates opportunities and also through ECOTECH which develops the capacity of people and institutions to take advantage of the opportunities and helps to offset the risk of people being left behind,'' he added.

Trade and investment liberalization and facilitation (TILF) and the ECOTECH are called the two wheels of APEC.

Leaders of all APEC economies have set a long-term objective related to the realization of TILF which says that industrial members and developing members of APEC should realize TILF by 2010 and 2020 respectively.

The ECOTECH Sub-Committee was set up to help less-developed economies to be well prepared to reach that goal, said Elard Escala, the APEC Senior Official from Peru.

One of the important steps ECOTECH is taking to enhance the efforts is the ECOTECH Action Plan (EAP) which the Sub-Committee discussed during their meeting held Monday, said Sudesh K. Maniar, a Singapore representative.

The EAP focuses on common policy concepts and individual and co-operative actions, Sub-Committee sources said.

The EAP will be based on the TILF which has concrete targets, according to Elard Escala.

"It is a tool through which we can see what we have done and what we need to do in this area," he added.

APEC member economies will submit their own EAPs to the Ministerial Meeting and the APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting on a voluntary basis.

（Chinadaily.com.cn 08/21/2001)