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Press Releases

DGTI to attend the Third APEC Senior Officials' Meeting and the Ninth APEC Small and Medium Enterprises Ministerial Meeting
Tuesday

, August 20, 2002

The Director-General of Trade and Industry, Mr. Joshua Law, will depart for Mexico today (August 20) to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) third Senior Officials' Meeting (SOM III) in Acapulco. He will represent the Secretary for Commerce, Industry and Technology to attend the 9th APEC Ministerial Meeting on Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) on August 24-25 also in Acapulco.

SOM III will work on a number of trade and investment liberalization, facilitation and economic cooperation issues top on APEC's agenda this year. Among others, Senior Officials will review the progress of implementation of the Shanghai Accord announced by the APEC Leaders in Shanghai last year. It includes implementation of the APEC Trade Facilitation Principles, broadening of the Osaka Action Agenda, and developing trade policies for the new economy.

Senior Officials also take part in peer reviews of the liberalization and facilitation programmes of Japan and Mexico. Other major issues for discussion at SOM III include APEC's contribution to the World Trade Organization Doha Development Agenda, review of actions to implement APEC Leaders' Statement on Counter Terrorism etc. Senior Officials will take stock of the progress of the discussions on various issues so far this year and will present the recommended way forward to Ministers and Economic Leaders in October. 

Hong Kong, China takes part in the series of committee/sub-committee meetings before SOM III. These include SOM Sub-committee on Economic and Technical Cooperation, Committee on Trade and Investment, Economic Committee, Investment Experts' Group, Government Procurement Experts' Group, Sub-committee on Customs Procedures, Sub-committee on Standards and Conformance, Informal Experts'  Group on Business Mobility, Market Access Group, e-APEC Task Force, High Level Meeting on Micro-enterprises and Women Leaders' Network. 

The APEC SME Ministerial Meeting will provide an opportunity for ministers from APEC member economies with responsibility for SME policies to exchange views and discuss ways on facilitating the further development of SMEs. 

Discussion at the meeting will cover three main areas, namely Policy Environment; Sustainable Growth; and Regionalism.

During the SME Ministerial Meeting, ministers will meet with the representatives of the APEC SME Business Forum (August 17 - 24 in Mexico). Businessmen, entrepreneurs, academics, etc in APEC member economies will attend the Forum. Two Hong Kong businessmen will participate in this event.

APEC comprises 21 members, namely 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 Philippines; Russia; Singapore; Chinese Taipei; Thailand; the United States of America; and Vietnam.

END