On October 18, 2001, Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan talked about the AMM at the APEC joint ministerial press conference.

Tang said that the 13th AMM has just concluded. It has reached broad consensus and issued a Joint Statement. It is a very successful meeting, whose major achievements are as follows:

First, it further advanced trade and investment liberalization and facilitation process in the Asia-Pacific region. In order to realize the Bogor Goals of achieving trade and investment liberalization and facilitation by 2010 for developed members and by 2020 for developing members, we reviewed the implementation of the IAPs and CAP, finished revising and updating the OAA and agreed to strengthen the IAPs peer review process. Moreover, we exchanged views on launching a new round of WTO negotiations and expressed explicit and firm support for the launch of a new round of negotiations at the 4th WTO Ministerial Conference. We also reviewed proposals of strengthening capacity building in the implementation of WTO agreements, which will inject new vitality into the development of trade and investment and multilateral trading system in the Asia Pacific region.

Second, in an effort to ensure that the people in the region benefit from globalization and the New Economy in a balanced manner, the AMM has cemented the cooperation within APEC in the fields of Ecotech and human resources capacity building. Based on the outcomes of the APEC High-Level Meeting on Human Capacity Building, the ministers have discussed ways of stepping up cooperation among the governments, the academic and the business circles, and agreed on the implementation of relevant joint projects. Through endorsing the Ecotech Action Plans, APEC has established a more effective participatory mechanism in promoting economic and technological cooperation. The meeting has also approved the e-APEC Strategy and mapped out a blueprint for the development of E-commerce. This will help our people to better take on the challenges of globalization and New Economy and grasp opportunities so as to realize common prosperity for the Asia Pacific region.

Third, the AMM emphasized that by ways of strengthening macro economic dialogue and cooperation, efforts should be made in order to create conditions favorable for the sustainable economic growth in Asia-Pacific. In face of an economic slowdown and the impact of the 11 September terrorist attack, the ministers have expressed their confidence in the economic prospect of the Asia-Pacific region and have reached broad consensus on taking effective macro-economic measures and stepping up cooperation with an aim to restore growth. Through further cooperation with finance ministers, we have conducted dialogue on macro economic policies among the members and launched cooperation projects in human capacity building in the financial sector. We have also make new progress on building social safety net, promoting energy security and other issues concerning the stable development of all member economies. These efforts will help APEC members to overcome current difficulties and lay a more solid foundation for the future development of the economy in the region.

Moreover, we have studied the subject of how to forge closer ties with a wider range of groups in society and boost exchanges and cooperation with people from all walks of life so as to get the business community, youth, women and other stakeholders of APEC involved in its cooperation process.

Tang said that during the last decade, APEC has become the most important economic cooperation forum in the Asia Pacific region and made positive contribution to ensuring regional peace and stability and promoting the stable growth of the regional economy. With the speed-up of globalization and fast-changing science and technology in the current time, the development of the multilateral trading system stands at a critical juncture. The holding of this year's APEC AMM at this important moment, at which an action plan has been mapped out for the future development of APEC, is set to advance the APEC process further into the new century.