From October 20 to 21, 2001 the Ninth Informal Summit of the APEC was held in Shanghai. Based on the theme of ‥meeting new challenges in the new century and achieving common prosperity through participation and cooperation,〃 the leaders of the participating member states held in-depth exchanges of views on the world and regional economic situations, the fostering of human resources and the future development orientation of the APEC and reached an extensive common understanding. The APEC Leaders Declaration, the Shanghai Agreement and some other documents were published. President Jiang Zemin presided over the meeting and made an important speech. It was the first time that China hosted an informal summit of the APEC and related meetings, and its success had injected new vitality into the economic and trade cooperation between the APEC members.