The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Senior Officials’ Meeting wrapped up in Beijing on November 6 with agreements reached on a number of practical matters.

During the two-day conference, officials from 21 member economies reviewed APEC’s achievements over the past few years and discussed the future of their cooperation.

They also reached a consensus on four key issues, including accelerating the formation of the Asian-Pacific Free Trade Agreement (FTAAP), promoting cooperation of the global value and supply chains, boosting economic and technical coordination, as well as conducting joint research to strengthen the region’s multilateral trading mechanism.

According to Zhang Shaogang, Director-General of the Department of International Trade and Economic Affairs at China’s Ministry of Commerce, the APEC Committee on Trade and Investment decided to set up a database on the bloc’s value chain and global commercial benefit by 2018.

Additionally, plans to construct an Asian-Pacific cross-border e-commerce centre in Shanghai, China, were approved at the function.

These achievements will be tabled for further discussion during the 22 nd APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting (AELM) on November 10–11.

APEC was founded in 1989 and has 21 members: Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong (China), Indonesia, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Taiwan (China), Thailand, the US and Vietnam. It aims to promote economic growth and prosperity in the region.

This year marks the 25 th anniversary of APEC, which is now the highest-level mechanism for cooperation on a wide range of issues in the Asian-Pacific region, serving as a major platform for discussions on regional cooperation.

Since the adoption of the Bogor Declaration 20 years ago, the average tariff level in the Asian-Pacific region has dropped by 12 percent; the total regional trade volume increased eight-fold; and nearly 200 cooperation projects are implemented in 30 different fields every year. Foreign direct investment (FDI) into the region surged to 10.6 billion USD in 2011, up from 2.5 billion USD in 1994.-VNA