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Press Release 2007

Youth Learning Project winners attend PECC meeting in Sydney
Thursday, May 3, 2007

The following is issued on behalf of the Hong Kong Committee for Pacific Economic Co-operation:

Two winning teams of the Youth Learning Project on Pacific Economic Co-operation 2007 returned to Hong Kong today (May 3) from their award-winning trip to Sydney, Australia. They joined the Hong Kong, China (HKC) delegation led by Chairman of the Hong Kong Committee for Pacific Economic Co-operation (HKCPEC) Professor Edward Chen, at the 17th General Meeting of the Pacific Economic Co-operation Council (PECC) and related activities, including an official address by the Australian Minister for Trade, Mr Warren Truss.

The winning teams comprised eight youth delegates,including five secondary school students from the St Paul's Co-educational College and three young adults from the Mass Transit Railway Corporation Ltd. 

The HKC delegation first included youth delegates at the 16th PECC General Meeting in Seoul, Korea in 2005. This outreach initiative was highly commended by other PECC member economies, and has become a role model in the PECC community. 

The winning teams met youth delegates from other economies including Australia, Indonesia, Japan, Korea and Mexico, and participated in the official programme for youth delegates. They also met media representatives to share their experiences regarding the Youth Learning Project at the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in Sydney on April 30. During their stay, they also visited Macquarie University.

The Youth Learning Project on Pacific Economic Co-operation 2007 was co-organised by HKCPEC and the Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups. The project is to encourage young people to cultivate their interests in policy issues of the Asia-Pacific region. It focuses on enriching knowledge, developing creative thinking, and enhancing investigative power to analyse the current situation, while formulating strategies to face the challenges and opportunities ahead. 

The project has two categories for entrants - (i) Secondary School Students and (ii) the Tertiary School Students and Young Adults. It successfully attracted 101 teams with a total of 385 participants. 

The winning project of the Secondary School Students category proposed to improve the Trading System under the Kyoto Protocol, so that everyone in the world could benefit from a cleaner environment. The Tertiary School Students and Young Adults category winning team suggested setting up a Cultural Tourism Sub-committee for supporting and catalytically speeding up the development of cultural tourism and allied sectors' sustainability.

PECC is a non-governmental organisation founded in 1980 with the objective of serving as a regional forum for co-operation and policy co-ordination to promote economic development in the Asia-Pacific region. PECC is tripartite in nature comprising representatives from the academic, business and government sectors. HKCPEC was established in 1990 to advise the Government on matters relating to HKC's participation in PECC. It is currently chaired by Professor Chen and comprises 13 members from the academic, business and government sectors.

Currently, PECC has 26 members, of which 22 are full members representing the economies of Australia, Brunei Darussalam; Canada; Chile; China; Colombia; Ecuador; Hong Kong, China; Indonesia; Japan; Korea; Malaysia; Mexico; New Zealand; the Pacific Islands Forum; Peru; the Philippines; Singapore; Chinese Taipei; Thailand; the United States; and Vietnam; two associate members representing France (Pacific Territories) and Mongolia; and two institutional members which are the Pacific Trade and Development Conference (PAFTAD) and Pacific Basin Economic Council (PBEC). 

Ends