Chinese President Jiang Zemin Thursday briefed APEC leaders at their 8th annual meeting in Brunei on the preparations for the 2001 APEC Meeting to be held in Shanghai, China.   

The next year's meeting scheduled to be held on October 20-21 will be the first gathering of APEC members in the new century, Jiang said, adding the Chinese government and people have devoted much effort to the meeting, which he believed will be a high- standard gathering of the century.   

"Following extensive consultations with all APEC members, we have initially set the theme of the meeting as "Meeting new challenges in the new century: achieving common prosperity through participation and cooperation," the Chinese president said.   

Centering on this theme, Jiang said the tentative agenda items of the meeting include the following three aspects: first, strengthening capacity building and opening up new opportunities for future development so that all members will benefit from globalization and the New Economy; second, promoting trade and investment and facilitating the establishment of a more reasonable multilateral trading system; and third, creating a favorable macro environment for the sustainable economic development of the Asia- Pacific region.   

He said the above theme and agenda items are designed to reflect the latest developments and trends of the international and regional situation and, in a forward-looking manner, make a good beginning for the development of the APEC in the new century.   

Also taken into account are the realities of the region, the continuity of the APEC process, and the diversity of its members, the Chinese president said.

"I look forward to your arrival in Shanghai, China next October, and wish to work with you to elevate the APEC process to a higher stage," Jiang told the APEC leaders.

Auckland Meeting(1999)

President Jiang Zemin delivered an important speech at the meeting. He stressed that keeping its nature as an economic forum, maintaining its unique "APEC approach" and attaching importance to economic and technical cooperation is the important experience of APEC to maintain vitality and make achievements. President Jiang put forward important proposals on the development direction of APEC and the focus of cooperation. He stressed that APEC should: actively promote common economic prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region; deepen regional economic and technical cooperation so as to lay a solid foundation for medium and long-term development of the Asia-Pacific; actively and steadily push forward the process of trade and investment liberalization and promote a sound development of the multilateral trading system; actively strengthen the cooperation in the international financial field and promote the establishment of a new, fair, and rational international financial order; firmly adhere to the right development direction of APEC and maintain the vigour and vitality of the organization; actively press ahead with the mutually beneficial cooperation among APEC members.

President Jiang also delivered a speech on APEC CEO Summit. He briefed on the economic development and the efforts made by China to maintain stability and development of the region. He also expressed that Chinese government will continue to encourage and support its enterprises to participate in APEC cooperation and to meet the challenge of globalization.

The above speeches of President Jiang summarized APEC' course of development and pointed out its future development directions. Meanwhile, the speeches reiterated to the international society the confidence and determination of Chinese government to adhere to the policy of reform and opening up and to actively participate in various APEC activities. The speeches drew attentions of the participants and contributed to the success of the meeting and the development of Asia-Pacific economic cooperation.