Expanding English Language Usage for Business, Trade and Diplomacy - 3rd APEC Education Ministers' Meeting

APEC Ministers will look at options for expanding education and training in the use of English and other foreign languages for business, trade and diplomacy when they meet in Santiago, Chile, on April 29-30.

This is one of the recommendations for consideration as part of the Education Ministers' program that is meeting under the theme of "Skills for the Coming Challenges."

Chile's Education Minister and Chair of the Ministerial Meeting, Mr. Sergio Bitar, said Ministers will look at education research and policy trends from Eastern and Western perspectives with the aim of deriving the best from all education systems.

"There will be discussion and exchange of ideas on the best way to promote the use English and other foreign languages between APEC Member Economies to overcome communications barriers," Minister Bitar said.

"Expanding the capacity for people to communicate in English and other foreign languages is central for the promotion of trade and economic development in the global economy.

"English will never replace the great diversity of local languages in APEC economies, but when it comes to international business, trade and diplomacy, English has emerged as the most common language between economies.

"If we are to be successful in building a stronger regional economy we must be able to communicate freely and openly in order to accomplish our tasks.

"Use English and other foreign languages for cross-border communications is important in many areas of trade ranging from tourism to the trade in financial services. Small and Medium Enterprises are also able to benefit through opportunities to increase their competitiveness, expand into export markets and source cheaper inputs to production."

The recommendations for areas of discussion were earlier agreed at the International Seminar on Education Reform in the APEC Region in Beijing, China, in January.

These areas have since been incorporated into a series of four sub-themes for the meeting:

Additional details on the Themes for the 3rd APEC Education Ministers' Meeting are available at:

http://www.apec.org/apec/news___media/fact_sheets/emm3_themes.html

The 3rd APEC Education Ministers Meeting will be preceded by the Senior Education Officials Meeting and a pre-Meeting Seminar and Exhibition on the use of information and communication technologies in education. These will include hardware and infrastructure products as well as educational software on 27-28 April.