Summit Meeting Of APEC Economic Leaders Closes In Shanghai

The non-formal summit meeting of economic leaders of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum has ended in Shanghai with Chinese leader Jiang Zemin reading out the final Declaration of APEC economic leaders after Sunday's second session of top leaders of APEC member-countries. According to the Declaration, APEC leaders confirm their intention to push for Russia's accession to the World Trade Organisation /WTO/ and are "full of resoluteness to achieve universal prosperity." In their opinion, the Shanghai summit coincided with a crucial period when global powers are witnessing a worse slowdown of economic development growth rates than it was expected. The majority of countries of the Asia Pacific Region /APR/ are going through an economic slump, which proved especially hard for countries with developing markets. What with the terrorist attacks on the USA on top of all that, the situation may badly affect separate branches of economy and undermine the trust of consumers and investors, reads the document. "We would like to issue a clear and sound signal that the Asia Pacific community is firmly resolved to counteract terrorism. We are full of resoluteness to overcome the current slowdown of economic development growth rates and inspire confidence in people at a moment of uncertainty by fighting protectionism and supporting the idea of launching a new WTO round at an upcoming Ministerial Conference of the WTO," stress APEC leaders in the Declaration. APEC leaders have also outlined the future course of Asia Pacific Cooperation for the second decade of the forum's history and for a long-term prospect by adopting a Shanghai Conciliation document.