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APEC members on Saturday reached a consensus to comprehensively and systemically push forward the Free Trade Area (FTA) of the Asia-Pacific process and agreed to take substantial actions for strengthening regional integration.
The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Ministerial Meeting agreed to "launch and comprehensively and systemically push forward the Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP) process," China's Commerce Minister Gao Hucheng said at a press conference.
The meeting also agreed to try to formulate the post-Bali work programme and take substantial actions for strengthening regional integration and advancing the FTAAP building, he said. When established, the FTAAP would be one of the largest FTA in the world, covering about half of global economy and trade.
A comprehensive and strategic study on FTAAP, an idea first proposed in 2004, would also be launched to create favourable conditions and lay solid foundations for establishing the FTA, Gao said.
The meeting has also decided to adopt an anti-corruption proclamation and set up a law enforcement network to allow for cross-border cooperation in the anti-graft field. Countries will step up collaboration in recovering assets that are illegally moved in a bid to further clamp down on graft cases in the region, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told reporters at the end of the APEC ministerial meeting.
The decisions were expected to be announced at the end of the two day summit beginning here from November 10.
China is in the middle of a popular anti-corruption campaign that has promised to take down both high-ranking "tigers" and lowly "flies".
China is also seeking to widen the campaign to those who have fled abroad in what it called the Fox Hunt 2014 operation, to "block the last route of retreat" for corrupt officials.
Earlier reports quoted Alan Bollard, executive director of the APEC Secretariat, as saying that the anti-corruption proclamation adopted by APEC ministers had been pushed not only by China but also by the United States.
He added that the proposed anti-graft law enforcement network would see the establishment of a group that could get the enforcement agencies together across the APEC region and allow them to pass on the information on particular cases with one another, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
