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Thursday 17 June 1999

Prime Minister Jenny Shipley will continue her talks with APEC leaders when she visits China, Korea, Japan and Hong Kong next month.

The visit from 17 to 25 July, is the Prime Minister's second trip to North Asia and follows her visits to North and South America this year in advance of the APEC leaders' summit in Auckland in September.

"As chair of APEC, I've made it my objective to talk to as many APEC leaders as possible to ensure this year's meeting is successful," Mrs Shipley said.

"We have set some concrete goals for APEC this year, and we are receiving encouraging support from around the region for our key objectives including APEC's contribution to further WTO multilateral negotiations and work on strengthening regional markets.

"I want to get as many leaders as possible signed up to those goals."

The Prime Minister will visit Beijing, Seoul, Tokyo and Hong Kong on next month's trip. She will meet with leaders, Ministers and senior business representatives in China, Korea, Japan and Hong Kong. So far this year she has met the leaders of Canada, the United States, Australia, Peru, Chile and Mexico.

As well as advancing New Zealand's APEC aims, Mrs Shipley will review bilateral relations with the countries she is visiting.

"These are hugely important markets for New Zealand. It is therefore encouraging that they are beginning to show signs of recovery from the recent economic downturn in the region. We now need work for achieving sustainable growth as a region.

"Such growth is tremendously important for New Zealand exporters and I'll be working on behalf of New Zealand to help open up more trade opportunities," Mrs Shipley said.

ENDS

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