APEC to highlight food security for high-quality regional growth+

SENDAI, Sept. 26 Kyodo -
The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum will highlight food security issues
ahead of November's meeting by its leaders as part of efforts to improve the
quality of the region's economic growth, a government official from Japan, now
chair of APEC, said Sunday.
APEC is working to compile a growth strategy that seeks to ensure a ''balanced,
inclusive, sustainable, innovative and secure'' growth. Efforts to ensure food
security and counter the spread of infectious diseases or terrorism are to
contribute to enable a ''secure'' growth.
The remarks were made after senior officials from APEC members ended their
two-day gathering in Sendai, which was aimed at preparing for the annual summit
to be held in Yokohama in November.
''Among human security issues, the key element is food security,'' the Japanese
official said, noting that APEC will convene its first ministerial meeting
focusing on the issue on Oct. 16 to 17 in Niigata Prefecture, one of the
country's largest production centers for rice.
Enhancing human security is important for APEC to pursue its main purpose of
facilitating trade and other economic activities.
The official added that the Ministerial Meeting on Food Security will also be
''significant'' in that it will discuss how to ensure stability of food prices
and production, after spikes in food prices several years ago triggered riots
in poor nations.
Compiling a regional growth strategy is the first such initiative for APEC
since its launch in 1989, and is expected to be one of the key outcomes of the
summit.
The 21-member APEC, which accounts for more than half of the world's economic
output and 44 percent of global trade by value, includes among its members
Australia, China, Peru, Russia, the United States, South Korea, Taiwan and
seven Association of Southeast Asian Nation members.
==Kyodo