Press Releases

DGTI to attend Second APEC Senior Officials' Meeting in 2001
Wednesday, May 30, 2001

The Director-General of Trade and Industry (DGTI), Mr Joshua Law, will leave Hong Kong tomorrow (May 31) to attend the Second Senior Officials' Meeting (SOM II) of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) in 2001 to be held on June 1 to 3 in Shenzhen.

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 Shanghai. Towards this end, Senior Officials will exchange views on, among other issues, APEC's contribution to the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the launch of a new multilateral trade negotiations round. Trade Ministers will deliberate on this at their subsequent meeting. The Secretary for Commerce and Industry, Mr CHAU Tak Hay, will lead the Hong Kong, China delegation to the Shanghai meeting.

SOM II will also consider a set of draft principles on trade facilitation prepared by an ad hoc task force led by Hong Kong, China. Other major issues for discussion include enhancement of the mechanism for the Individual Action Plans for trade and investment liberalization 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.

Hong Kong, China will take part in the series of committee/sub-committee meetings before SOM II. These include the SOM Sub-Committee on Ecotech, Committee on Trade and Investment, E-APEC Task Force, Ad Hoc Task Force on the Development of APEC Principles on Trade Facilitation, Group on Economic Infrastructure, Advisory Group on Gender Integration, Market Access Group, Group on Services, Investment Experts' Group, Sub-Committee on Standards and Conformance, Competition Policy and Deregulation Workshop, Informal Experts' Group on Business Mobility, etc.

The Hong Kong, China delegation to SOM II and related meetings will comprise officials from Commerce and Industry Bureau, Health and Welfare Bureau, Trade and Industry Department, Department of Health, Immigration Department, Innovation and Technology Commission, Office of the Telecommunications Authority, and the Office of the HKSAR Government in Beijing.

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.