SEMINAR ON EMPOWERING MONGOLIA TO JOIN APEC RUNS

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ An international seminar themed "Enhancing national potential of Mongolia to join Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation" ran December 2-3 in the Ministry of External Relations and Economic Cooperation. Co-organized by the Academy of Diplomacy at the Ministry, the Center for General Research on Foreign Policy and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAF), the seminar brought together APEC experts from Australia, the USA, Russia, Singapore, South Korea and China, also representatives, economists and scholars from the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Minister of External Relations and Economic Cooperation, Ministry of Finance, General Customs Office (GCO), National Central Intelligence Agency (NCIA), research institutes and universities. Six researchers from the APEC shared their countries’ experiences in becoming the APEC’s members and expressed views on evaluating a policy of Mongolia on joining the APEC and on working out a recommendation to implement a proper policy. In the opening remarks, a director of the Academy of Diplomacy Mr Kh.Bekhbat emphasized that Mongolia fully supports the APEC’s purposes and principles and that a willingness to join the APEC was sounded by Mongolia first time in 1993. "Now we want to overview and evaluate our policies and measures, to discuss our achievements, mistakes and further works," he said. A director of the Center for General Research on Foreign Policy Mr L.Galbadrakh delivered a keynote report "Mongolia's policy towards joining APEC, related measures". He was followed by others who talked about evaluation of this policy, advantages and disadvantages of becoming the APEC member.