Health risks on APEC forum agenda



The annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum opened in South Korea's southeastern port city of Busan on November 13, 2005, with free trade, counter-terrorism, oil prices and fighting corruption at the top of its agenda.

For the first time, a global response to health risks such as avian flu will be included on the agenda.

Senior officials from the 21 APEC member economies began their two-day meeting to finalize the agenda for the Economic Leaders' Meeting scheduled on November 18-19.

The theme of this year's APEC forum is "Towards One Community: Meet the Challenge, Make the Change," reflecting the member economies' vision of becoming a unified global community with an open multilateral trading system as the key to economic growth.

The APEC forum opened amid tight security in Busan following the recent deadly terror attack in the Jordanian capital of Amman. Some 30,000 police have been deployed in the port city to provide security for the APEC forum, while another 20,000 police have been mobilized to guard subway stations, train stations and important buildings across the country.

On the first day of the APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting on November 18, the Pacific Rim leaders will focus on the future direction of the WTO and the Doha round of trade talks, the "Bogor Goals" and the response to regional trade agreements and free trade agreements.

The second day will focus on safety, including measures against terrorism and corruption and for preventing epidemics, including avian flu, as well as energy security.

"APEC 2005 in Busan will be another opportunity for APEC to demonstrate its consolidated stance on the advancement of free trade and enhancement of all-round security," said Kim Jong-hoo, South Korea's APEC ambassador.

The Pacific Rim leaders are also scheduled to adopt a joint statement entitled the "Busan Declaration," a special statement on the Doha Development Agenda (DDA) and the "Busan Roadmap" to trade liberalization in the region.

The "Busan Roadmap" will set timetable for implementing free trade and investment objectives in order to speed up cross-border market liberalization beyond borders under the "Bogor Goals". These goals specify the APEC objectives for free and open trade and investment among industrialized members by 2010, and among developing members by 2020.

South Korean SWAT members patrol around the venue where leaders from 21 countries will hold their annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting in Busan, November 13, 2005.


Vocabulary
amid 在...当中
deploy 部署
epidemic 流行病
stance 立场
patrol 巡逻

 

 

World in Pictures
Photo source: ImagineChina

	Good enough to eat 美味的巧克力衣服 Models wear creations made mostly of chocolate during the 8th Annual Chocolate Show in New York, November 8.
	World's biggest chair 世界最大板凳惊现德国 A group of people appear tiny as they stand on a huge chair in front of a furniture store in Eschborn, near Frankfurt Main, Germany, November 7. According to the store, the chair measures 25.30 meters in height and a seat height of 12.70 meters, making it the largest chair in the world.
	Homemade cars 下坡车大赛创意百出 Hogan Crawford, left, and Jordan Thompson give Kurt Price a push at the starting line at the Cubmobile Race on Sunday, November 13, 2005 in Anderson, South Carolina. The annual event pitches Cub Scouts from around Anderson County against each other in a series of downhill races in homemade cars.
	Handstand record 2402人齐倒立 Seona Moloney, aged 12, performs a handstand as 2,402 young gymnasts smash the world record for simultaneous handstands in Melbourne, November 13. They broke the previous record of 1,072 set in the US, and the event was organized to promote the upcoming 2005 World Gymnastics Championships to be held in Melbourne, from November 21-27.
	Super cake mold 超大饼模展出 A model sits on a giant cake mold, November 9, in Yilan, Taiwan. This mold is 4.5 meters long, 2.5 meters wide and 0.8 meters high.

 

 

World in Words
Collected & translated by Beverly

"We love children, especially when they're tucked into chairs and behaving."
"我们很喜欢小朋友, 特别是他们乖乖坐在椅子上, 表现很好的时候. "
Menus at Zumbro Cafe in Minneapolis say. Unruly children are a headache for restaurants and coffee houses.
--(美)明尼阿波利斯市一家名为Zumbro的咖啡馆在菜单上作了如上明示. 调皮的孩子们成了餐馆咖啡屋的心头之患.

"Keeping alive our unique dress style is a very important political issue. We must adhere to specific national cultural traditions at a time when the U.S. imperialists are maneuvering to spread the rotten bourgeois lifestyle inside North Korea."
"在美国资产阶级生活方式蔓延到朝鲜的时候, 保持传统服饰已上升为一个保护朝鲜特色文化传统的政治问题. "
North Korea's communist government is urging women in the country to wear traditional Korean clothes instead of pants, according to a North Korean monthly magazine.
--朝鲜一月刊发表文章指出朝鲜共产主义政府正号召本国女性放弃裤装换上韩服.

"It is time for the couple to make it official. "
"是时候让这对情侣正式结合在一起了. "
Thai officials held a wedding party last week, but the nuptial bliss belonged to a pair of animals: the country's only two resident giant pandas.
--上周, 泰国官员举办了一场特殊的婚礼, 婚礼的主角是生活在该国的惟一一对大熊猫.

"I can't remember ever having a nightmare. For my first nightmare to be about e-mail, that was pathetic."
"我以前从不做噩梦. 第一个噩梦就是关于e-mail的, 那是个可怕的梦. "
Steve Robbins, an executive adviser of an American company, complaining about being buried under a pile of e-mail at work every day, and having no energy to do the rest of his work.
--美国某公司行政顾问史蒂夫·罗宾斯抱怨说每天都让堆积成山的e-mail压得喘不过气, 没有精力去做其他事情.