Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) members should work toward a clear, substantive outcome document at this year's Leaders' Meeting, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said during a speech at the opening session of the first Senior Officials' Meeting of APEC China 2026 in Guangzhou on Tuesday.
Wang, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, said that China has chosen the theme "Building an Asia-Pacific Community to Prosper Together" for this year's APEC meetings and will focus on the priorities of openness, innovation, and cooperation to advance the year's agenda.
APEC members should explore ways to broaden the path toward a Free Trade Area in the Asia-Pacific, and should promote the formulation of a blueprint for upgrading connectivity, Wang said.
Wang said that APEC members should accelerate digital, smart, and green transformations driven by innovation, and foster new growth drivers for APEC economies.
APEC members should bear in mind the diversity within the organization, and deepen practical cooperation across wide-ranging areas of governance that are integral to development, Wang added.
This is the third time that China has hosted APEC -- and the first after 12 years. Chinese President Xi Jinping has pointed the way forward: stay true to APEC's founding mission of promoting economic growth and improving people's lives, champion open development where everyone shares opportunities and emerges a winner, promote a universally beneficial and inclusive economic globalization, and build an Asia-Pacific community, Wang said.
"Over the past 12 years, APEC member economies have sustained steady growth. With roughly 40 percent of the world's population, we've generated more than 60 percent of global GDP and nearly half of global trade, with more economic activity gravitating toward the Asia-Pacific," he said.
He called on the APEC members to build a prosperous and stable Asia-Pacific, an open and interconnected Asia-Pacific, a universally beneficial and inclusive Asia-Pacific and a united and mutually supportive Asia-Pacific.
The APEC "China Year" coincides with the opening year of China's 15th Five-Year Plan period. China will deliver new opportunities for the Asia-Pacific and the wider world with the new achievements of Chinese modernization, Wang said.
The first Senior Officials' Meeting of APEC China 2026 is designed to begin preparing the outcomes for the Leaders' Meeting in November. APEC representatives expressed strong support for China's agenda.
"This year the APEC host's priorities are openness, innovation and cooperation. All these priorities are perfectly in line with our structural reform work. So I hope that the economic committee can contribute significantly to the priorities and the framework of APEC China," said Ding Kwok-wing, chair of the APEC Economic Committee.
"We have three projects that support each of them. Under openness, we have the project on the Free Trade Area of Asia Pacific. Under innovation, we have a project on artificial intelligence for trade facilitation. And under cooperation, we have a project on climate tech in focus," said Kaewkamol Karen Pitakdumrongkit, executive director of the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council International Secretariat.
Chinese FM outlines key tasks of APEC China 2026
