Speaking at the 14th ministerial meeting of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) in Los Cabos, Mexico, Secretary for Commerce, Industry and Technology Henry Tang expressed his deepest sympathy on behalf of the Hong Kong government to the victims and relatives of those killed or injured in the terrorist bombing on the Indonesian island of Bali.

"As part of the APEC family we are greatly appalled by such a terrorist act, and deeply saddened to see the loss of innocent lives. Our condolences go particularly to Australia, who suffered the highest number of casualties," he was quoted by a Hong Kong government gazette on Thursday.

"Like the 911 terrorist attacks, the casualties in Bali were not just confined to citizens of the country being attacked but from different parts of the world, not the least from Hong Kong.

"This demonstrates clearly that no economy can be an isolated island in the barbaric onslaught of terrorism, and equally in the global fight against terrorism," he noted.

As an international financial center, he said, Hong Kong will continue to play an active role in the global fight against money laundering and financing of terrorism.

Tang said Hong Kong had also demonstrated its commitment to safeguard the global maritime trading system against terrorism by supporting the US Container Security Initiative (CSI).

"As the world's busiest container port, we consider it is our responsibility to work with the international community to safeguard the global maritime trading system from the potential risks facing all of us," he said.

At the ministerial meeting, Tang also urged fellow APEC ministers to push ahead strongly with global negotiations under the World Trade Organization’s Doha Development Agenda.

He said that it is important for WTO members to meet the three-year negotiation deadline set during the latest round of global trade talks launched in Doha, Qatar, in November 2001.

(Xinhua News Agency October 25, 2002)