On November 5, 2014 (September 13, 2014), the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) was held in Beijing. From November 5 to 11, 2014, China will host this year's APEC Leaders' Meeting in Yanxi Lake, Huairou, Beijing. This is the return of APEC to China after 13 years after China hosted the APEC meeting in Shanghai in 2001. During the APEC Leaders' Week, ministerial meetings and informal leaders' meetings will be held one after another. So the question is, what is a ministerial meeting? What is a senior officials' meeting? How much do you know about the APEC meeting? The establishment of APEC The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) is the highest-level, most extensive and most influential economic cooperation mechanism in the Asia-Pacific region. From November 5 to 7, 1989, Australia, the United States, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, Canada and the then six ASEAN countries held the first ministerial meeting of APEC in Canberra, the capital of Australia, marking the formal establishment of APEC. The purpose of APEC is to promote free and open trade and investment, deepen regional economic integration, strengthen economic and technological cooperation, and improve the business environment in order to build a dynamic, harmonious and win-win Asia-Pacific family. APEC's organizational structure APEC has a total of 5 levels of operation mechanism: 1. Informal leaders' meeting: In November 1993, the first APEC leaders' informal meeting was held in Seattle, USA, and has been held once a year since then. Since 1993, it has been held 21 times in Seattle, the United States, Bogor, Indonesia, Osaka, Japan, Subic, the Philippines, Vancouver, Canada, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Auckland, New Zealand, Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei, Shanghai, China, Los Cabos, Mexico, Bangkok, Thailand, Santiago, Chile, Busan, South Korea, Hanoi, Vietnam, Sydney, Australia, Lima, Peru, Singapore, Yokohama, Japan, Hawaii, the United States, Vladivostok, Russia, and Bali, Indonesia. 2. Ministerial Meetings: including double ministerial meetings and professional ministerial meetings. The double ministerial meeting is held once a year before the leaders' meeting. Professional Ministerial Meetings are held on a regular or irregular basis, including Trade Ministers, Finance Ministers, Small and Medium Enterprises Ministers, Energy Ministers, Oceans Ministers, Mining Ministers, Telecommunications Ministers, Tourism Ministers, Food Security Ministers, Forestry Ministers, etc. 3. Senior Officials Meetings: 3 to 4 times a year, composed of senior officials (usually deputy ministerial or director-level officials) designated by each member. The main tasks of the Senior Officials Council are responsible for implementing the decisions of the leaders and the ministerial meeting, reviewing the activities of various committees, working groups and secretariats, preparing for ministerial meetings, informal leaders' meetings and coordinating the implementation of conference follow-up. 4. Committees and Working Groups: There are 4 committees under the Senior Officials' Council, namely: Committee on Trade and Investment (CTI), Economic Committee (EC), Steering Committee of Senior Officials of Economic and Technical Cooperation (SCE) and Budget Management Committee (BMC). CTI is responsible for the work assigned by the Senior Officials' Council on trade and investment liberalization. EC is responsible for studying economic development trends and issues in the region, and coordinating economic structural reform work. SCE is responsible for guiding and coordinating economic and technical cooperation, and BMC is responsible for budget and administrative management issues. There are multiple working groups, expert groups and sub-committees under each committee to engage in professional activities and cooperation. 5. Secretariat: Established in Singapore in January 1993 to provide support and services for activities at all levels of APEC. The head of the secretariat is the Executive Director. The term of office is fixed from 2010 for three years. The current Executive Director is Dr. Pollard. The main topics of APEC As the economic cooperation forum, APEC mainly discusses issues related to the global and regional economy, such as trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, regional economic integration, global multilateral trading system, economic and technical cooperation and capacity building, economic structural reform, etc. APEC's cooperation method APEC adopts an autonomous, voluntary and consensus cooperation method. Decisions made are subject to the unanimous consent of all members. The outcome document of the meeting is not legally binding, but members have the political and moral responsibility to try their best to implement it. APEC's Business Participation In order to strengthen ties with the business community, the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) was established in 1995. It is composed of 3 prominent business people recommended by each member. It is responsible for making suggestions on APEC's trade and investment liberalization, economic and technological cooperation and creating a favorable business environment, and submitting advisory reports to leaders and ministerial meetings. The Business Advisory Council is the main channel for the business community to participate in APEC cooperation and holds 4 meetings a year. The secretariat is located in Manila, Philippines. The 2001 APEC Meeting in Shanghai, China The 2001 Informal Senior Officials Meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) was held at the Shanghai International Convention Center. The APEC Shanghai Meeting has left a wealth for the future due to its series of substantive results. It has set another milestone in the history of APEC since the Seattle and Bogor meetings. Focusing on the theme of "New Century, New Challenges: Cooperation, Participation and Promotion of Common Prosperity", the meeting reached broad consensus on the current global and Asia-Pacific economic situation, the future development direction of APEC, and human voluntary capacity building, and issued the "Leaders' Declaration". The meeting adopted the "Shanghai Consensus", which reaffirmed the firm determination of all members to achieve the "Bogor Goals" and pursue common prosperity, enriched the cooperation content of APEC and strengthened its cooperation mechanism. The "Digital APEC Strategy" was adopted, which will play a positive role in bridging the gap in the new economic field among members and promoting the development of the information and communication industry. The meeting also issued the leaders' statement on counter-terrorism. Thanks to China's initiative, the meeting also established the APEC Working Group and launched the Financial Crisis Prevention Fund. Public opinion believes that APEC has taken a big step towards operability, and APEC will greatly increase its vitality as a result. The theme of this APEC informal leaders' meeting is to build an Asia-Pacific partnership for the future. The achievements of APEC meetings over the years Since its establishment, especially after the informal leaders' meeting became a fixed mechanism, APEC has made continuous progress in promoting regional trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, and has played an active role in promoting global and regional economic growth. The 1993 Seattle Conference in the United States promised to deepen the spirit of the Asia-Pacific family and strive for stability, security and prosperity for the people of the region. The 1994 Bogor Conference in Indonesia established the goal of APEC to achieve trade and investment liberalization, and proposed two timetables, namely, developed members to achieve this goal by 2010 and developing members by 2020. The 1995 Osaka Conference in Japan adopted the Osaka Action Agenda, which identified trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, and economic and technical cooperation as the two wheels of APEC cooperation, and required APEC members to formulate unilateral action plans and collective action plans to promote regional trade and investment liberalization. The 1996 Subic Conference in the Philippines established the "APEC cooperation mode characterized by autonomy, voluntary and consensus, calling on all parties to give due attention to economic and technical cooperation and to include the private sector in the APEC process. The 1997 Vancouver Conference in Canada promised to improve and improve the unilateral action plan year by year, and admitted Vietnam, Russia and Peru as new APEC members. In 1998, the Kuala Lumpur Conference in Malaysia decided to lay a solid foundation for the sustainable development of the Asia-Pacific in the 21st century by establishing a social insurance network, improving the financial system, strengthening trade and investment flows, developing science and technology and human resources, and strengthening ties with the business community. In 1999, the Auckland Conference in New Zealand put forward the goal of achieving paperless trade among developed members in 2005 and developing members in 2010, and approved the APEC Business Travel Card Plan. In 2000, the Bandar Seri Begawan Conference in Brunei adopted the New Economy Action Agenda, which emphasized the role of the new economy dominated by information technology in the development of the world economy, and agreed to adopt the electronic version of the unilateral action plan. The 2001 Shanghai Conference promoted APEC to make positive progress in many fields such as multilateral trading system development, human resource capacity building, e-APEC, new economy and anti-terrorism cooperation, and reached the Shanghai Consensus aimed at accelerating the realization of the Bogor Goals. The 2002 Los Cabos Conference in Mexico focused on discussing the benefits of expanding economic growth and development cooperation, and realizing the long-term goals of APEC, and adopted the "APEC Regional Safe Trade Initiative". The 2003 Bangkok Conference in Thailand emphasized increasing investment in the fields of knowledge economy, financial system and economic structural reform, and promised to carry out practical cooperation in the field of human security. It approved the APEC Action Plan to Combat SARS. The 2004 Santiago de Chile Conference reaffirmed its intention to promote economic structural reform and proposed cooperative measures to deal with terrorism. The 2005 Busan Conference in South Korea completed the mid-term review of the Bogor Goals and formulated the "Busan Roadmap" to achieve the Bogor Goals. The 2006 Hanoi Conference in Vietnam further developed an action plan to achieve the "Busan Roadmap". The 2007 Sydney Conference in Australia discussed in depth the issue of climate change and adopted the "Sydney Declaration on Climate Change, Energy Security and Clean Development". The 2008 Lima Conference in Peru discussed in depth the global and regional economic situation, the international financial crisis and other issues, and issued the "Leaders' Declaration" and "Statement on the International Economic and Financial Situation". The 2009 Singapore Conference discussed in depth issues such as economic growth, the multilateral trading system, regional economic integration, and climate change, and issued the "Leaders' Statement on" Advocating New Growth Models and Building a Connected Asia-Pacific in the 21st Century ". The 2010 Japan Conference discussed in depth issues such as regional economic integration and formulating new economic growth strategies, and adopted four outcome documents such as the" Leaders' Declaration: Yokohama Vision for the Bogor and Post-Bogor Era ". The 2011 Honolulu Conference in the United States focused on the theme of" a closely connected regional economy ", focusing on Asia-Pacific economic growth, regulatory cooperation, and energy security, and issued the" Honolulu Declaration - Towards a closely connected regional economy ". The 2012 meeting in Vladivostok, Russia, focused on trade and investment liberalization and regional economic integration, strengthening food security, establishing reliable supply chains, and strengthening cooperation for innovative growth, and issued the "Integration for Development, Innovation for Prosperity - Declaration of the 20th APEC Informal Leaders' Meeting". The 2013 meeting in Bali, Indonesia, focused on topics such as the Bogor Goals, Connectivity, Sustainable and Equitable Growth, and issued the "Dynamic Asia-Pacific, a Global Engine - Declaration of the 21st APEC Informal Leaders' Meeting" and the "Statement on Supporting the Multilateral Trading System and the Ninth Ministerial Meeting of the World Trade Organization". (APECChina2014)