Related: Main gist of APEC ministerial meeting's statement

    BUSAN, South Korea, Nov. 16 (Xinhuanet) -- APEC ministers issued a joint statement here Wednesday, reaffirming their commitment to achieving trade and investment liberalization and facilitation in the APEC region by 2010 and 2020, respectively.

    The ministers from 21 members of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) made the statement after winding up two day's ministerial meeting.

    They agreed to strengthen the multilateral trading system by pushing ahead with the WTO Doha Development Agenda negotiations. They claimed that significant progress must be made in the coming WTO ministerial meeting in Hong Kong in mid-December.

    The ministers decided to advance trade and investment liberalization and facilitation.

    The ministers also agreed to encourage APEC members to develop new initiatives in countering terrorism and secure trade.

    They decided to accelerate APEC's ongoing work on infectious diseases threats such as avian influenza.

    The ministers also decided to join hands in many other fields. Enditem