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STI to attend Seventh APEC Ministerial Meeting
The Secretary for Trade and Industry, Mr T H Chau, will represent Hong Kong at the Seventh Ministerial Meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) to be held in Osaka, Japan on Thursday and Friday (November 16 and 17).
The meeting will consider a draft Action Agenda for implementing the free trade goal set by APEC Economic Leaders last year. It will also review the work of APEC in 1995 and chart the direction and programme for APEC's activities in the coming year.
"Ministers will consider the draft Action Agenda drawn up by Senior Officials for achieving the goal of free and open trade and investment in the Asia-Pacific region by the year 2020," said Mr Chau.
"The Action Agenda will cover the full range of trade and investment issues and provide a detailed framework for liberalisation, facilitation, and economic and technical co-operation to take place in APEC in the lead up to 2020," he added.
The draft Action Agenda is now being finalised by APEC Senior Officials in Osaka. The Director-General of Trade, Mr Tony Miller, is Hong Kong's Senior Official to APEC.
Apart from attending the Ministerial Meeting, Mr Chau will take the opportunity to hold informal bilateral meetings with Ministers from other APEC economies to exchange views on trade and economic issues of mutual concern.
Such meetings have been arranged with the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of International Trade and Industry of Japan, Mr Ryutaro Hashimoto; the Minister for Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation of China, Madam Wu Yi; the Minister for International Trade, Mr Roy Maclaren; the Secretary of Trade and Industry of the Philippines, Mr Rizalino Navarro; the Korean Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy, Mr Park Jae-Yoon; and the Minister of Economic Affairs of Chinese Taipei, Dr Chiang Pin-kung.
APEC is an informal forum for high level government-to-government dialogue on trade and economic issues, and at present comprises 18 members. Besides Hong Kong, the other members are: Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, China, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Singapore, Chinese Taipei, Thailand and the USA.