The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum will highlight food security issues ahead of November’s meeting by its leaders as part of efforts to improve the quality of the region’s economic growth, a government official from Japan, now chair of APEC has said.

 APEC is working to compile a growth strategy that seeks to ensure a ”balanced, inclusive, sustainable, innovative and secure” growth. Efforts to ensure food security and counter the spread of infectious diseases or terrorism are to contribute to enable a ”secure” growth.

 The remarks were made after senior officials from APEC members ended their two-day gathering in Sendai Sunday, which was aimed at preparing for the annual summit to be held in Yokohama in November.

 ”Among human security issues, the key element is food security,” the Japanese official said, noting that APEC will convene its first ministerial meeting focusing on the issue on 16th to 17th October in Niigata Prefecture, one of the country’s largest production centers for rice.

 Enhancing human security is important for APEC to pursue its main purpose of facilitating trade and other economic activities.

 The official added that the Ministerial Meeting on Food Security will also be ”significant” in that it will discuss how to ensure stability of food prices and production, after spikes in food prices several years ago triggered riots in poor nations.

Compiling a regional growth strategy is the first such initiative for APEC since its launch in 1989, and is expected to be one of the key outcomes of the summit.

 The 21-member APEC, which accounts for more than half of the world’s economic output and 44 per cent of global trade by value, includes among its members Australia, China, Peru, Russia, the United States, South Korea, Taiwan and seven Association of Southeast Asian Nation members.