The Second Senior Officials’ Meeting, the Meeting of APEC Ministers Responsible for Trade and the Ministerial Meeting on Food Security took place on May 20th – June 5th in Kazan

Within the framework of Russia’s chairmanship in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Forum, on May 20th – June 5th the capital of the Republic of Tatarstan hosted the Second Senior Officials’ Meeting (SOM2) and the associated events, the Meeting of APEC Ministers Responsible for Trade and the Ministerial Meeting on Food Security.

The event was organized by the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation, the Government of the Republic of Tatarstan and Russian APEC Study Center.

In the course of these days, 37 meetings, workshops, meetings of working groups and committees were held in Kazan at one of the key facilities of the Universiade 2013 — Kazan Tennis Academy. More than 3.5 thousand guests from the APEC economies visited the Forum events.

Key areas of the Agenda within the priorities announced by Russia were discussed at the working meetings: trade and investment liberalization, regional integration; strengthening food security; forming supply chains and intensive interaction for ensuring innovative growth.

On May 26-27 ACIG took part in the Innovation Technology Dialogue “Nanotechnology for energy efficiency”. More than 20 international experts from the APEC economies, which are undisputed leaders in the global scientific and technological transformations, took part in the event: Russia, the USA, Japan, China, the Republic of Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, New Zealand and Chile. The problem of energy efficiency is a traditional subject for discussion in APEC within the concept of “green” growth and “green” economy. The view of energy efficiency through the lens of nanotechnologies opens absolutely new horizons in APEC. The results of the Dialog will make a significant contribution to understanding the issue of energy efficiency and promoting important solutions for the existing problems through efficient mechanisms at the global level. Oleg Fomichev, Deputy Minister of Economic Development of the Russian Federation, addressed the audience with the welcoming speech, while Sergey Kaluzhny, Director of Scientific and Technical Expertise Department, ROSNANO Board Member, acted as the moderator of the meeting.

The Minister of Agriculture of the Russian Federation Nikolay Fedorov and the Prime Minister of the Republic of Tatarstan Ildar Halikov also addressed the Ministerial Meeting on Food Security.

The First Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Igor Shuvalov, the Minister of Economic Development Andrey Belousov, the President of the Republic of Tatarstan Rustam Minnihanov and the Director-General of the World Trade Organization Pascal Lami took part in the work of the meeting of the APEC Trade Ministers.

Following the Ministerial Meeting, Kazan Declaration on Food Security and Statement of APEC Ministers Responsible for Trade were adopted. They will serve as a basis for the final document to be adopted at the APEC Leaders’ Meeting in Vladivostok.

The Declaration on food security confirmed the attempts of the APEC economies to continue work to ensure sustainable agricultural development and facilitate investment, trade and market. APEC Ministers Responsible for Trade Statement underlines the necessity to strengthen linkages between trade and environmental policy.