ESTABLISHMENT


In January 1989, Australian Prime Minister Hawk raised the initiative of convening a ministerial meeting on the economic cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region during his visit to Seoul, Republic of Korea. After consultations with relevant countries, the first ministerial meeting was held in Canberra, Australia from 6 to 7 November 1989. Foreign Ministers and Economic Ministers from Australia, the United States of America, Canada, Japan, Republic of Korea, New Zealand, Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand attended the meeting. Thus Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) was set up. On 20 and 21 November 1993, the first APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting was held in Seattle, the United States of America.


OBJECTIVES


In November 1991, the 3rd APEC Ministerial Meeting in Seoul issued the Seoul APEC Declaration that set the objectives of "Interdependence and common interests, to develop and strengthen the open multilateral trading system and reduce regional barriers to trade".


MEMBERS


21 Members: Australia; Brunei Darussalam; Canada; Chile; People's Republic of China; Hong Kong, China; Indonesia; Japan; Republic of Korea; Mexico; Malaysia; New Zealand; Papua New Guinea; Peru; Philippines; Russia; Singapore; Chinese Taipei; Thailand; United States; Viet Nam.


ORGANIZATIONS


APEC's organization is at 5 levels:


(1) Economic Leaders' Meeting (ELM): the meeting is held at the latter part of every year since 1993. Up to now, the meeting has been held for 7 times respectively in Seattle, United States; Bogor, Indonesia; Osaka, Japan; Subic, Philippines; Vancouver, Canada; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Auckland, New Zealand.


(2) Ministerial Meeting: the meeting is usually held before the Economic Leaders' Meeting. Foreign Ministers from members except Hong Kong, China and Chinese Taipei, and their Economic Ministers will participate in the meeting. There have been 11 Ministerial Meetings since the founding of APEC, among which those between 1989 and 1992 were held respectively in Canberra, Australia; Singapore; Seoul, Republic of Korea; Bangkok, Thailand. Ever since 1993, the Ministerial Meeting has been held at the same venue as the Economic Leaders' Meeting. In addition, some sectoral ministerial meetings are held every year.


(3) Senior Officials' Meeting (SOM): The meeting is made up of senior officials or ambassadors and usually has 4 or 5 meetings each year. At present, the APEC Senior Official of the People's Republic of China is Ambassador Zhang Yan. SOM's main tasks are carrying out the decisions of the Ministerial Meeting and the Economic Leaders' Meeting and making necessary preparations for next Ministerial Meeting and the Economic Leaders' Meeting.


(4) Committees and Working Groups (WG): There're 4 committees under SOM, namely Committee on Trade and Investment (CTI), Economic Committee (EC), SOM Sub-Committee on Economic and Technical Cooperation (ESC), Budget and Management Committee (BMC). In addition, there're 9 Working Groups and 3 policy level and expert groups to carry out specific activities and cooperation.


(5) The Secretariat: The Secretariat was set up in Singapore in January 1993 to provide support and services for APEC activities at all levels. The highest officer of the Secretariat is the Executive Director, who is appointed by the host member of the year.


Related Websites:


Website of the APEC Secretariat: http://www.apecsec.org.sg


Website of APEC China 2001 : http://www.apec-china.org.cn