Ministerial officials from the 21 member economies of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) attended the opening session of the two-day MRT meeting.

Chinese President Jiang Zemin sent a congratulatory letter to the meeting, which is the first of a series of ministerial meetings of APEC 2001 organized by China.

The meeting will focus on such issues as the launch of a new round of WTO negotiations and making preparations for the APEC Informal Leadership Meeting to be held in Shanghai in October.

(People's Daily 06/06/2001)