On behalf of the Secretary of Economy, Ildefonso Guajardo Villarreal, the Undersecretary of Foreign Trade, Francisco de Rosenzweig, will participate in the Meeting of Ministers Responsible for Trade of the Mechanism of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC, for its acronym in English), which takeS place in Boracay Island, Philippines, on 23 and May 24, 2015.

This year, the Philippines is the seat and chairs the APEC's works whose principal theme is "Building inclusive economies by building a better world." The ministerial meeting aims to promote the dialogue and joint cooperation to address the economic and trade challenges of the Asia-Pacific region.

During the ministerial meeting, the discussions will focus on three priorities: improve the regional economic integration; support the multilateral trading system; and promote the participation of small and medium-sized enterprises in the regional and global markets.

Apart from the APEC ministerial meeting, the Secretary de Rosenzweig will hold bilateral meetings with his counterparts from Australia, Canada, United States, Philippines and New Zealand, with whom he will share views on their respective bilateral economic relations, to promote opportunities to improve the participation of Mexico in the markets of the Asia-Pacific region and progress in the negotiations of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP, for its acronym in English).

APEC is now the most important forum for dialogue in the Asia-Pacific region. It brings together 21 economies that, together, account for about 40% of the world's population, 58% of global Gross Domestic Product and 49% of the trade in the world.

The economies of APEC are integrated by Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, China, Korea, USA, Philippines, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Russia, Singapore, Thailand, Chinese Taipei and Vietnam.

Last year, the trade between Mexico and the APEC economies accounted for 85.3% of our total trade with the world and 55.9% of the Foreing Domestic Investment received by Mexico in the same period of 1999-2014.

Mexico joined APEC in 1993 to expand and diversify its economic ties with Asia-Pacific. The participation and coordination of the works of Mexico in APEC are the responsibility of the Secretariat of Economy.