China will set up an Asia-Pacific Finance and Development Center, providing a platform for Asia-Pacific economies to step up exchanges and capacity-building, Chinese President Hu Jintao announced in Santiago Sunday, Nov. 21.

Speaking at Retreat II of the 12th Economic Leaders' Meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), the Chinese president urged the APEC member economies to deepen their mutually-beneficial cooperation in the promotion of an Asia-Pacific Community.

The Chinese president said Chile, the host, chose this year's theme of APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting as "One Community, Our Future", thus well reflected the wishes of the APEC members.

"Common interests and common future require us to shoulder common responsibility and exert joint efforts." Hu said. "We should grasp the opportunities brought about by economic globalization and regional integration process, take full advantages of the APEC platform to learn from each other, push forward closer and mutually beneficial economic and trade cooperation, for the sake of laying a solid foundation for achieving sustainable common development."

Trade and Investment Liberalization and Facilitation (TILF) and Economic and Technical Cooperation are the two priorities of APEC. "We should lose no time in implementing 'Bogor Goals', which provides us with guidelines and measurement for TILF in the Asia-Pacific region," Hu noted.

This year, APEC, chaired by the host of Chile, has made useful efforts in free trade arrangement. "The APEC members have reached consensus on the Santiago Initiative on promoting trade liberalization and facilitation, a move we welcome," said the Chinese president.

Economic and technical cooperation centered around capacity-building should be further strengthened since it helps developing members to achieve long-term economic growth and sustainable development.

"China will set up an Asia-Pacific Finance and Development Center, providing a platform for Asia-Pacific economies to step up exchanges and capacity-building," Hu announced.

The Chinese president arrived here Thursday for a state visit to Chile and attending the 12th APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting.

The 12th APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting kicked off Saturday in the Chilean capital under the theme of "One Community, Our Future".

The APEC was set up in 1989 in response to the growing interdependence among Asia-Pacific economies and to the need to advance Asia-Pacific economic dynamism and sense of community.

It now groups Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Chinese Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Mexico,New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Chinese Taipei, Thailand, the United States and Vietnam.

The organization accounts for more than a third of the world's population with about 2.6 billion people, nearly 60 percent of the world GDP with about 19 trillion US dollars and about 47 percent of world trade. It also represents the most economically dynamic region in the world generating nearly 70 percent of global economic growth during the last 10 years.