According to Zhang Xuezhong, China's minister of personnel, the meeting, called the APEC High Level Meeting on Human Capacity Building, will analyze the opportunities and challenges facing human capacity building in the Asia-Pacific region in the new century.

It will also discuss the strategy, policies and measures of APEC's human capacity building, with special emphasis on pooling the efforts of the government, enterprises and education and academic sectors, added Zhang, who also heads the Chinese preparatory panel for the meeting.

"The goal of the meeting is to analyze the challenges faced by human capacity building against the backdrop of the new economy, strengthen APEC members' understanding of the field, put forward new strategies for the development of talents and establish a framework for such development and a mechanism for the cooperation of the government, enterprises and the academic sector," said Zhang.

The meeting, which has so far attracted 315 participants from all APEC's 21 member economies, is expected to endorse an initiative based on the two-day discussion. The initiative will be submitted to the informal meeting of APEC leaders to be held in Shanghai in October.

Human capacity building has attracted increasing attention from APEC member economies in recent years. While the new economy has brought new opportunities for development, many people have started to worry that the digital divide could widen the gap between developed countries and developing ones. Official figures indicate that of all the APEC projects implemented between the years 1993 and 2000, 42 percent were aimed at the development of human resources.

Next week's meeting was initiated by Chinese President Jiang Zemin and the Sultan of Brunei Haji Hassanal Bolkiah when they met at last year's informal APEC summit in Bandar Seri Begawan. The two leaders will attend the opening ceremony of the Beijing meeting and will address the participants.

"With abundant human resources that have great potential, human capacity building in the region has good prospects," said Zhang. "A meeting focused on human capacity building will be a great help to the overall development of the region, help expand new spheres and inject new vitality into APEC economic and technological cooperation."

Zhang also held that the meeting will boost China's human capacity building as the most populous nation prepares for globalization and starts its new five-year development plan.

"China is faced with the challenge of how to convert its population burden into rich human resources and how to transform human resource potential into actual advantage," said Zhang. "The meeting will help China strengthen international cooperation in human capacity building and learn from the experiences of other countries."

(China Daily 05/11/2001)