Backgrounder: APEC Senior Officials' Meetings

The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders' Week meetings commenced in Singapore Sunday with the start of the two-day Concluding Senior Officials' Meeting (CSOM).

The SOMs are a series of meetings held three or four times a year, with the concluding session being convened to prepare agenda and documents for the subsequent ministerial and leaders' meetings.

Two SOMs have already been held in Singapore this year.

At the Feb. 15-16 SOM, APEC member economies were urged to take appropriate measures to resist protectionism as some 1,000 officials and delegates gathered for the event.

APEC Senior officials noted with concern the rise in protectionist pressures globally and reaffirmed their commitment to resist these pressures and avoid protectionist measures in their domestic policy responses to the economic crisis.

At the July 15-19 SOM, APEC member economies have agreed to continue their efforts in strengthening food safety capacity building activities and improving food safety information sharing across the region.

APEC economies will focus the attention on strengthening coordination of food safety capacity building activities, utilizing a broad range of government, industry and academic stakeholders.

The Concluding SOM is being held on Nov. 8-9 in Singapore.

Source:Xinhua