The officials brainstormed on the role and future direction of APEC, including the priorities for APEC in 2001 based on the decisions reached by leaders of APEC members at Brunei, said Wang Guangya, Chinese vice foreign minister and chairman of the Senior Officials Meeting.

At a news briefing Sunday evening, Wang said that participants affirmed their commitment to the APEC process as a major regional vehicle for promoting free and open trade and investment and economic and technical cooperation.

They also called for renewed momentum towards the goals and objectives set forth by leaders of the member economies through focused and action-oriented activities, and looked forward to the APEC Shanghai process under China's chairmanship in delivering tangible outcomes, according to Wang.

He said that they reviewed the latest macro-economic developments and expressed confidence in the long-term growth prospects for the region despite current uncertainties over growth in some economies.

The participants emphasized that the implementation of the APEC agenda in line with its spirit of community has become even more relevant under such circumstances to turn around the slow-down, stave off the adverse effects, and enable economic recovery to continue in the region, Wang noted.

Officials voiced their strong support for an earlier launch of a new round of trade negotiations of the World Trade Organization on the basis of a balanced and sufficiently broad-based agenda, he said.

Wang said that they agreed that APEC is well placed to contribute to strengthening the multilateral trading system through its unique roles in consensus and confidence building, especially through the accelerated implementation of its WTO-related capacity building programs.

(People’s Daily 02/11/2001)