Taipei, Nov. 3 (CNA) The government, media and people of Taiwan should be more active in participation in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum at all levels, professors said in a seminar focused on Taiwan's APEC participation Friday.
Taiwan should maximize its expertise in fields such as public health safety and information and communication technology (ICT) to make it an agenda-setter in APEC, Lin Cheng-yi, a professor at National Chengchi University, said two weeks before the annual APEC Summit, which will be held in Vietnam from Nov. 12- 20.
Local government involvement in APEC activities can also increased, said Wu Fu-sheng, deputy director of the Department of International Affairs of the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research.
Russia, which will host the APEC summit in 2012, is a good example for Taiwan, Wu said. Russia has been inviting local government officials to its APEC delegations since 1998, he noted.
Taiwan's media and the general public should also pay attention to more than just the special envoy appointed by the president because "APEC meetings means more than that to Taiwan, " Lin said.
"Most people don't realize that APEC is the only international organization in which Taiwan has full membership, " he claimed.
"In fact, APEC is the only multilateral platform for Taiwan in the international community, " said Michael Hsiao, executive director of Academia Sinica's Center for Asia-Pacific Studies.
Taiwan's APEC participation should "emphasize the essence instead of the appearance, " Hsiao said.