S. Korea to attend senior officials meeting ahead of APEC summit

A preparatory meeting of senior officials will be held in Lima this week ahead of the summit gathering of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), the foreign ministry said Friday.

A Korean delegation led by Lee Tae-ho, deputy foreign minister for economic affairs, will attend the senior-level meeting set from Saturday to Sunday in the capital of Peru, the ministry said.

This year's APEC meeting of member countries' heads of state is slated for November in the South American country under the motto "Quality Growth Human Development."

This week's preparatory meeting will delve into cooperative subjects, including joint research on the Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific, a road map for improving service industry competitiveness, as well as a vision for APEC after the 2020 Bogor Goals are reached.

The Bogor Goals are a set of free trade and investment targets in the Asia Pacific agreed upon in 1994.

"Korea is pushing to have a framework adopted on education, employment and venture businesses for APEC young adults in a bid to contribute to human resource development, one of the items on this year's APEC summit agenda," the ministry said. (Yonhap)