First Senior Officials' Meeting of 2005 Underway in Korea
Delegates from each of APEC's Member Economies have gathered in Seoul for the First Meeting of APEC Senior Officials in 2005.
Working to the theme of "Towards One Community: Meet the Challenge, Make the Change" Senior Officials are making preparations for the Ministerial and Leaders Meetings that will take place during 2005.
The first Senior Officials' Meeting is covering areas such as APEC's support for the resumption of the Doha Development Round of WTO negotiations, the role of Free Trade Agreements in the APEC process and APEC capacity building projects underway in 2005.
The Chair of the APEC Senior Officials' process in 2005 is Ambassador Jong-Hoon Kim of Korea. Mr Kim opened the meeting this morning by welcoming delegates from the far corners of the APEC region and outlining the work plan for the coming two days of meetings.
Click for News Photos of Ambassador Jong-Hoon Kim and group photo of Senior Officials.
The first day of this Senior Officials Meeting is an informal event where views and opinions are sought from Member Economies on a range of current issues. The second day is the more rigorous Plenary Session in which Member seek to find common ground on issues that will later be presented to Ministers and Leaders.
The Plenary Session will be opened by Korea's Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister, Ban Ki-Moon, on Friday morning.
There will be three additional Senior Officials' Meetings and four ministerial meetings at various locations during 2005 with the conclusion of the year being the APEC Leaders' meeting in Busan, in November.
| Date and Venue | Meeting |
| 22 Feb-04 March, Seoul, Korea | APEC SOM I Meeting and Related Meetings |
| 21-31 May, Jeju, Korea | APEC SOM II Meeting and Related Meetings |
| 02-03 June, Jeju, Korea | APEC Meeting of Ministers Responsible for Trade |
| 24 August-02 September, Daegu, Korea | 12th APEC SME Ministerial Meeting and Related Meetings |
| 05-14 September, Gyeongju, Korea | APEC SOM III Meeting and Related Meetings |
| 06-09 September, Jeju, Korea | APEC Finance Ministers' Meeting and Related Meetings |
| 12-13 November, Busan, Korea | APEC Concluding Senior Officials' Meeting |
| 15-16 November, Busan, Korea | APEC Joint Ministerial Meeting |
| 18-19 November, Busan, Korea | APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting |