SENDAI (Kyodo) The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum will highlight food security issues ahead of November's leadership meeting as part of efforts to improve the quality of the region's economic growth, a government official said Sunday.
APEC is working to compile a growth strategy that seeks to ensure a "balanced, inclusive, sustainable, innovative and secure" growth, said the official, who chaired a two-day APEC gathering in Sendai that ended Sunday.
Efforts to ensure food security and counter the spread of disease or terrorism must contribute to enable "secure" growth, he said.
The remarks were made after senior officials from APEC nations ended a preliminary series of meetings in Sendai that were held to establish the agenda for the annual summit.