Jiang and his wife Wang Yeping, who flew in Los Cabos by a special plane from Waco city of the United States, were greeted atthe airport by Leonel Gota, governor of South Lower California State of Mexico.

Tung Chee-hwa, chief executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of China, Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan and Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation ShiGuangsheng also greeted Jiang at the airport.

Also arriving aboard the same plane was Vice-Premier Qian Qichen.

Under the theme of "Expanding the Benefits of Cooperation for Growth and Economic Development -- Implementing the Vision," the 2002 APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting is intended to deal with growth policies for the new economy and discuss ways to benefit from development, especially for small, medium-sized and micro enterprises.

The meeting is also expected to explore ways to promote greaterparticipation in APEC by women and young people.

However, in the wake of the deadly bombing in the Indonesian island of Bali, a series of terrorist attacks in the Philippines and hostage-taking by Chechen separatists in Moscow, global security issues appear to dominate the APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting this year.

In the terrorism working group of APEC, the discussion will center on ways to prevent terrorist attacks and take measures to ensure these ways do not hurt economic growth.

The APEC Economic Leaders' Declaration this year will likely adopt a series of actions aimed at strengthening security while easing the flow of goods and people; preventing financing of terrorism while ensuring the efficiency of financial markets and protecting information systems while permitting the unrestricted flow of information.

APEC, set up in 1989 in response to the growing interdependenceamong Asia-Pacific economies and to the need to advance Asia-Pacific economic dynamism and sense of community, now groups Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Chinese Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Chinese Taipei, Thailand, the United States and Vietnam.

(Xinhua News Agency October 26, 2002)