Trade Director to attend APEC Senior Officials Meeting
Monday, May 29, 2000

The Director-General of Trade, Mr Joshua Law, will leave Hong Kong tomorrow (May 30) to attend the Second Senior Officials' Meeting (SOM II) of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) in 2000 to be held on June 1 to 3 in Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei Darussalam.

The focus of SOM II is to prepare for the meeting of APEC Ministers Responsible for Trade to be held on June 6 and 7 in Darwin, Australia. Towards this end, Senior Officials will exchange views on, among other issues, capacity building work of APEC and APEC's contribution to the World Trade Organization (WTO), on which Ministers will deliberate at their subsequent meeting. The Secretary for Trade and Industry, Mr. CHAU Tak Hay, will lead the Hong Kong, China delegation to the Darwin Trade Ministers Meeting.

Other major issues for discussion at SOM II include strengthening the reporting mechanism of the Individual Action Plans for trade and investment liberalisation and facilitation, initiatives for strengthening markets, electronic commerce, economic and technical cooperation as well as means to enhance APEC's interaction with the wider community.

A number of committee/sub-committee meetings will be held before SOM II, also in Bandar Seri Begawan. These include the SOM Sub-Committee on Ecotech, Committee on Trade and Investment, Sub-Committee on Standards and Conformance, Human Resources Development Working Group, Investment Experts Group, Informal Experts Group on Mobility of Business People, Competition Policy and Deregulation Workshop, etc.

The Hong Kong, China delegation to SOM II and related meetings will comprise officials from Trade and Industry Bureau, Education and Manpower Bureau, Business and Services Promotion Unit of the Financial Secretary's Office, Trade Department, Education Department, Immigration Department, Industry Department, Office of the Telecommunications Authority, and the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in Singapore (which covers Hong Kong's commercial relations with Brunei Darussalam).

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