From October 15-21, 2001, Shanghai played host to a series of APEC meetings, including the Senior Officials' Meeting, Joint Ministerial Meeting, CEO Summit, and the Informal APEC Leaders' Meeting. These meetings drew leaders of APEC members, 600 leaders in global corporate world and over 3,000 journalists from home and abroad to Shanghai.

The APEC meetings in China gained worldwide attention, not only because the host country was China, a country that had been witnessing steady and sustained economic development, but also because APEC's achievements over the past decade or so had turned it into the world's most influential regional economic forum.

Centering around the theme "meeting new challenges in the new century, achieving common prosperity through participation and cooperation," leaders of member economies exchanged views on a wide range of issues, from the macroeconomic situation and the impact of the September 11 terrorist attacks to human capacity building and the future development of APEC.

The economic leaders' declaration, issued at the end of the informal APEC summit, has reflected APEC members'consensus on such major issues as how to respond to opportunities and challenges brought forth by globalization and New Economy in the new century, pushed forward regional cooperation, and strengthened member economies'confidence and determination to overcome current economic difficulties and reverse the global economic downturn.

The meeting also produced the Shanghai Accord, which reiterated member economies' determination to realize the Bogor goals and common prosperity. It will have far-reaching impact on the future development of APEC and promote sustained economic development in the region. The e-APEC Strategy, also unveiled at the meeting, provided guidelines for the development of the information technology industry and the narrowing of "digital divide" among member economies.

Other results of the meeting include the issuance of an anti-terrorism declaration and, at the suggestion of China, the formation of an APEC working group for the launch of a financial crisis prevention fund.

Common prosperity will be a major target for APEC in the future. The meetings in Shanghai not only expressed such a wish, but also, more importantly, did concrete work and achieved certain progress for that goal.

As the highest-level inter-governmental mechanism for economic cooperation in the region, APEC, based on past experiences, will strengthen cooperation in the following: Standing at the forefront of global and regional economic development and adapting to changes in world and regional economies, to provide instructions on the solution of major problems facing global and regional economic development; advancing toward the Bogor goals while maintaining diversity; contributing to the development of multilateral trade mechanism based on the principle of open regionalism; and reflecting the broadest interests of member economies.

Chinese President Jiang Zemin commented that the meetings had achieved their pre-set goals. Leaders of other economies were also quite satisfied with the results, believing the meetings would have far-reaching and significant influences on the region.

According to a BBC report from Shanghai, the host country China was trying to raise the prestige of APEC, which had been criticized as an organization playing little real role.