First APEC 2002 Meetings Open In Mexico City

The first APEC Senior Officials' Meeting (SOM 1) opened 27 February 2002 in Mexico City, marking the official start of Mexico's year as host economy for APEC.

This year Mexico will be hosting more than 100 APEC Meetings including Ministerial meetings on Trade, Finance, Energy, Tourism, Small and Medium Enterprises, Gender Integration, APEC Business Advisory Council, the CEO's Summit, the joint meeting of Foreign and Trade Ministers and the annual APEC Leaders' Meeting.

The First APEC Senior Officials' Meeting taking place 27-28 February 2002 provides overall coordination and direction for this year's APEC process. The task of Senior Officials is to implement the directives of Leaders and Ministers as agreed in Shanghai in October 2001. Senior Officials oversee and coordinate the budgets and annual work programmes of APEC.

The SOM I Meeting in Mexico City has been preceded by a series of meetings of APEC committees and working groups including the Committee on Trade and Investment (and its sub-committees on Customs Procedures, Standards and Conformance and Groups on Services and Market Access); the Economic Committee; the Sub-Committee on Economic and Technical Cooperation; WTO Capacity Building Group; Advisory Group on Gender Integration; E-Commerce Steering Group and the e-APEC Taskforce amongst others. The Chairs of all APEC Committees and Working Groups will attend a Joint Fora Meeting on 1 March.

For 2002, the work programmes of APEC Committees, Working Groups and other fora will include a focus on the following priorities established for the year by Mexico as host economy:

- Implementation of policies on trade, investment and finance to promote economic growth and extract gains from the New Economy;
- Capacity building to obtain benefits from development through the promotion of micro, small and medium sized enterprises;
- Strengthening APEC's international relevance by encouraging greater participation of youth and women, intensifying efforts to promote the benefits of globalization and improving the functioning of APEC.

The SOM I meeting is being chaired by Mr Gerardo Tralosheros, General Director of Multilateral Trade Affairs for the Mexican Secretary of Economy. Mexico will also be hosting APEC SOM II and related meetings in Merida, 17-25 May 2002 and APEC SOM III and associated meetings in Acapulco, 13-21 August 2002.

Further details relating to Mexico's year as host for APEC may be found on www.apec2002.org.mx