APEC senior officials reach consensus on economic growth

SINGAPORE, Nov. 9 (Xinhua) -- The Concluding Senior Officials' Meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) ended here Monday after reaching a consensus on how to boost economic growth.

At the two-day closed-door meeting, senior officials from the 21 APEC members focused on issues such as the global financial crisis, protectionism, multilateral trade mechanism and regional economic integration, according to participants of the meeting.

The officials reached a consensus on ways to promote inclusive, sustainable and balanced growth, accelerating regional economic integration, opposing all forms of protectionism and supporting the early conclusion of the Doha Round of world trade negotiations.

The meeting endorsed a report to be submitted to the APEC ministerial meeting.

Senior officials' meetings of the APEC are a series of meetings held three or four times a year, with the concluding session to prepare agenda and documents for the subsequent ministerial and leaders' meetings.

The theme of this year's APEC Singapore meetings is "Sustaining Growth, Connecting the Region". It is expected that when leaders of the 21 APEC members meet on Nov. 14-15, they will also focus on ways to ensure a durable economic recovery in the region.

"We are committed to pursue economic growth that is inclusive and broad-based," says a draft statement by the APEC Ministerial Meeting to be held on Nov. 11-12.

"We remain concerned over the threat of protectionism to our economic recovery," says the statement seen by Xinhua, adding "we reaffirm the concrete commitment.. to keep our markets open and resist all forms of protectionism."

The APEC forum was established in 1989 to capitalize on the growing interdependence of Asia-Pacific economies, and it has grown to become one of the world's most important regional groups.

APEC's 21 member economies are home to more than 2.7 billion people and represent approximately 54 percent of world GDP and 44 percent of world trade.

Since APEC's inception, members have experienced an average annual GDP growth of 7 percent, versus 5 percent growth in non-APEC economies.