BEIJING, Nov. 17 (Xinhua) -- The 14th Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders' Informal Meeting is to be held in Vietnam's capital Hanoi on Nov.18-19, under the theme of "Towards a Dynamic Community for Sustainable Development and Prosperity".

    The following is a brief introduction to APEC.

    APEC is an important economic forum in the Asia-Pacific region, and the highest-level economic cooperation mechanism among governments in the region.

    In the late 1980s, with the Cold War being replaced by globalization, liberalization of investments and interdependence of regional economies, the economy of the Asia-Pacific region also enjoyed an apparently increasing importance in the world economy.

    In January 1989, then-Australian Prime Minister Robert Hawke initiated an APEC ministerial meeting to discuss the strengthening of regional economic cooperation.

    With the first APEC ministerial meeting held in November 1989 in Canberra, Australia, the regional forum was officially established.

    In November 1991, the third ministerial meeting was held in South Korea's capital Seoul. The "Seoul Declaration" was issued after the meeting, which finalized APEC's tenet and objectives, which includes sustaining the growth and development of the region's economy, enhancing the positive gains from the increasing economic interdependence of members, developing and strengthening the open multilateral trading system and reducing barriers in regional trade and investment.

    APEC has a five-layer structure: the APEC Economic Leaders' Informal Meeting, the Ministerial Meeting, Senior Officials Meeting, committees and working groups, and the Secretariat.

    The APEC Economic Leaders' Informal Meeting is the highest-level meeting in the forum. Thirteen informal meetings have been held, with the first held in November 1993 in the U.S. city of Seattle.

    In November 1991, China officially joined the regional forum as a sovereign state, and Chinese Taipei and Hong Kong (officially named as China's Hong Kong since July 1, 1997) were accepted as regional economies.

    APEC has represented the most economically dynamic region in the world, with its 21 members accounting for more than one third of the world's population (2.6 billion people), approximately 56 percent of the world GDP (over 19 billion U.S. dollars) and around48 percent of the world trade volume.