Yokohama Picked as Venue for 2010 APEC Summit

Tokyo, March 25 (Jiji Press)--The 2010 summit of the Asia-Pacific
Economic Cooperation forum will be held in Yokohama, south of Tokyo,
Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso told reporters Wednesday.
Yokohama was picked because the city is close to Tokyo
International Airport at Haneda and has many accommodations. The summit is
expected to be held at the Pacifico Yokohama convention center around
November 2010, Foreign Ministry officials said.
It will be the second time for Japan to host an APEC summit. The
first summit in the country took place in the western city of Osaka in 1995.
Besides Yokohama, four cities--Sapporo, Kyoto, Nara and
Hiroshima--bid to host the 2010 summit.
The APEC forum has 21 member economies, including the United
States, China and Russia as well as Japan.
At next year's meeting, participants are expected to examine
progress the member economies have made toward the achievement of the Bogor
Goals, which were set at the 1994 APEC summit in Bogor, Indonesia, informed
sources said. They will also likely discuss further steps that should be
taken to ensure the attainment of the targets.
The Bogor initiative called on developed members of the APEC forum
to achieve their goals of free and open trade and investment by 2010 and
developing members by 2020.