YOKOHAMA, Japan, Nov. 13 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Hu Jintao attended the 18th Economic Leaders' Meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) that is opening here Saturday.
Hu was expected to speak at the meeting, which focuses on such topics as regional economic integration, growth strategy for the Asia-Pacific region, economic and technical cooperation and an assessment of achievement made by APEC economies in freeing up trade and investment.
Hu will put forward proposals on realizing balanced, inclusive, sustainable, innovative and secured growth in the Asia-Pacific Region, and will present China's view on future development of APEC, Assistant Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin said in an earlier briefing.
Liu said Hu will present China's view on future development of APEC and explain China's stance and propositions on regional cooperation.
On Saturday morning, the Chinese president attended the APEC CEO summit, at which he delivered a speech on the theme of "Emerging Economies in the Asia-Pacific Region."
"China hopes that this APEC economic leaders' meeting would achieve positive results in a number of areas," Liu said.
According to the Chinese Foreign Ministry, China expects the APEC economies to further implement liberation and facilitation of trade and investment so as to accelerate integration of the regional economy.
China also hopes that the meeting will send a definite and positive message on opposing protectionism and supporting the Doha round of WTO talks to achieve balanced, comprehensive results on the basis of existing achievements.
Foreign Ministry sources said China hopes that the meeting would make progress in helping developing economies in capacity building and narrowing the gap of development, and improving developing economies' capability of self-dependent growth and internal power of growth.
China hopes that the meeting would continue to steadily advance institutional reform of APEC to improve its efficiency, activeness and influence.
APEC is the premier forum for facilitating economic growth, cooperation, trade and investment in the Asia-Pacific region.
Since APEC's birth in 1989, it has grown to encompass 21 members, accounting for around 50 percent of GDP and 44 percent of trade of the world.
The 21 member economies include Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, China's Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Chinese Taipei, Thailand, the United States and Vietnam.
The annual APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting is the top decision-making organ of the forum. This year's meeting has the theme of "Change and Action."
During the meeting, Hu was also to attend a dialogue with representatives from business circles in the region and to exchange views with them on Asia-Pacific free trade zone, growth of small- and medium-sized enterprises, food security and energy security.