Thanks to more than one decade's efforts, APEC has already laid a fairly good foundation for itself in terms of the principles and specifics of cooperation. It should go on with its approach of cooperation which basically features respect for diversity, independence and voluntarism as well as consensus so as to ensure a right direction for development. The Ecotech among APEC members should be further strengthened, particularly the cooperation in science and technology and human resources development. Human beings are the most invaluable of all on earth. The human resources are the first and foremost resources.
People are the key to scientific and technological advance and economic and social progress.
New opportunities, new challenges, latest science and technology and other fresh developments have made new requests for human resources development. The Asia-Pacific region is endowed with abundant human resources, which should be properly developed and exploited. In order to translate the potential in human resources into an advantage in real development, effective measures have to be taken to create an environment that encourages people of talent to come forward in large numbers and that brings out the best in them, and above all, to give priority to human resource development and quicken human capacity building. This is crucial to all APEC members for sustainable development. APEC can have a big role to play in this regard.