The 13th Ministerial Meeting of the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) issued a joint statement at the end of its two-day meeting in Shanghai Thursday calling for structural reform of member economies for economic growth in this region.

Since the end of last year, the slowdown in the United States, Japan and Europe has dampened the prospect of global and regional economy, with some members in the region affected considerably by the declining global demand, the statement said.

"The recent terrorist attacks in the United States risk undermining some industries as well as consumer confidence," it noted.

In face of the less favorable global and regional economic environment, the member economies affirmed in the statement their confidence in the medium and long-term prospects of growth in the APEC region and agreed to strengthen cooperation to tackle the short-term economic difficulties.

The document emphasized the importance of APEC's response to current economic conditions, and stressed the importance of structural reform and sound domestic policies to create a more favorable macro-economic environment for growth in this region.

The 18-page document detailed APEC members' commitments to strengthening multilateral trading system, promoting human capacity building and intended efforts in respects of E-APEC and other issues.

(Xinhua News Agency 10/18/2001)