China will continue to take an active part in counter-terrorism activities within the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum and strengthen exchange and coordination with other members, Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing said in Banngkok on Saturday.
"We are willing to work with others in combating terrorism," said Li at the second-day session of the APEC ministerial meeting at Queen Sirikit National Convention Center.
Noting China is also a victim of terrorism, Li said "China is opposed to terrorism in all its forms and attaches great importance to counter-terrorism."
He promised that China will contribute to the creation of a secure and stable environment for the prosperity and development in the Asia-Pacific region while advancing the "Bogor Goals," which set the target of realizing free trade for developed APEC members by 2010, and for developing members by 2020.
While praising the important role played by APEC in combating terrorism, boosting investors' confidence and promoting economic growth in the region, Li said that APEC should play a bigger role in developing new technologies, coordinating counter-terrorism measures and strengthening capacity building based on the counter-terrorism action plan submitted by its members.
He pointed out that the APEC counter-terrorism efforts should focus on enhancing trade security, suppressing terrorist financing and protecting cyber security.
"As an economic forum, APEC should also balance efforts on counter-terrorism and trade by making the two complement and reinforce each other," he said.
On the issue of Ecotech, Li said it is imperative for APEC members to further strengthen Ecotech with capacity building at its core.
"At the WTO ministerial conference in Cancun (of Mexico) last month, many developing members made a strong call for turning the New Round into a real 'development round' with greater efforts on capacity building. This call deserves our full attention," he said.
China has been attaching great importance to Ecotech, he said.
According to the Chinese foreign minister, China has initiated two priority projects this year. The first is the "Innovative APEC" jointly put forward by China and Thailand, and the second is the High-Level APEC Symposium on Social Safety scheduled for next year in China to discuss how to safeguard the basic well-being of vulnerable groups.
"We are convinced that with more efforts on Ecotech, we will make greater contributions to the growth and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region," Li said.
He also voiced China's support for APEC reform, which he said could be one of the priorities of APEC in the coming years.
He said the reform should focus on streamlining APEC activities to avoid overlapping and to improve efficiency.
"At the same time, we should make efforts to further integrate resources and ensure effective coordination among APEC fora to achieve concrete results," he added.
Also speaking at Saturday's meeting, Yu Guangzhou, vice minister of commerce of China, expressed China's support for APEC to continue dialogue and exchanges concerning regional trade arrangement and to promote regional economic integration and global trade and investment liberalization.
Stressing that regional trade arrangement is an important factor for APEC Ecotech, he said that principles for acts in this regard should be based on consensus reached in the past years by APEC members.
During the meeting, Foreign Minister Li also held brief talks separately with his counterparts from Russia, the United States, Mexico, Singapore, Japan, New Zealand, Canada and Vietnam.
They discussed the problem of Iraq, the nuclear issue of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, and further cooperation within APEC and within the framework of the United Nations.
(Xinhua New Agency October 19, 2003)
