The 18th Ministerial Meeting of APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) opens in Hanoi, Vietnam, Nov. 15, 2006. (Xinhua Photo) Photo Gallery >>>

    HANOI, Nov. 16 (Xinhua) -- Foreign ministers, trade ministers and representatives from the 21 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) member economies Thursday continued their final preparation for the upcoming leaders' meeting with a plenary session.

    During the session, they will focus discussions on intellectual property rights, individual action plans and collective action plans, economic and technical cooperation, health security, anti-corruption, and private sector development, among other topics.

    The documents endorsed by the ministers will be submitted for the APEC economic leaders to approve when they meet here on Nov. 18-19.

    On Wednesday, the first day of their two-day annual meeting, the ministers and representatives of the APEC member economies reached agreement on a broad range of issues including support for the World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations, trade facilitation in the Asia-Pacific region, and new counter-terrorism initiatives, according to a press release issued by the Organizing Committee of the APEC Vietnam 2006.

    After half a morning of discussion on Wednesday, the representatives reached broad consensus on the draft of a stand-alone statement on the Doha round WTO negotiations, which they will propose to the leaders to issue later this week.

    The first-day meeting also endorsed five model measures for high-quality regional trade arrangements and free trade agreements in trade in goods, technical barriers to trade, transparency, government procurement, and cooperation.

    The delegates also discussed the idea of a free trade area of the Asia-Pacific as a long-term prospect, and unanimously approved the Hanoi Action Plan to implement the Busan roadmap for realization of the 1994 Bogor goals of free and open trade and investment.

    Meanwhile, the list of 2006 counter-terrorism deliverables and the APEC Reform 2006 Deliverables were also endorsed on the first day.

    Founded in 1989, APEC is a major regional forum acting as the primary regional vehicle for promoting open trade and practical economic and technical cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region.

    It represents the most economically dynamic region in the world, with its 21 member economies accounting for more than one third of the world's population (2.6 billion people), approximately 60 percent of world GDP (19,254 billion U.S. dollars), about 47 percent of world trade.