Date: 4 June 2003

Hundred of delegates from Asia-Pacific countries will be in Thailand for a series of meetings of the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation grouping which includes the APEC summit in October 2003.

The meetings cover a gamut of issues from Finance and Information Technology to Transportation, Environmental issues and Tourism. All of these are all part of the APEC business and economic development agenda which allows intensive dialogues between the public and private sectors.

The APEC, originally created in 1989, is a forum for promoting economic growth, co-operation, trade and investment in the Asia-Pacific region. The group is attempting to reach the "Bogor Goals" which focuses on three specific areas: trade and investment liberalization; Business Facilitation, and economic and technical co-operation. These areas aim to reduce tariffs and other barriers to trade in the Asia-Pacific, to ensure the effective flows of goods, services, and people across borders as well as to facilitate economic and technical co-operation.

Apart from the main focal points on business and economic development, Tourism also plays a prominent part in the agenda. The meeting venues have been distributed in various parts of the country such as provinces of Khon Kaen, Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Phuket, Pattya, and Chonburi in order to help foreign delegates to see different parts of the country as well as to give opportunities to regional Thai business leaders to participate the meetings which probably allow them to explore their potential growth.

A long string of meetings in Thailand will be culminated with the APEC leaders' summit in October 2003, one of the important assembling of the year.

The fact that Thailand receives a great deal of big international conferences is believed to generate remarkable returns and positive publicity of the country.

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