20. Connecting the people of Asia-Pacific: Continued prosperity in the region will depend heavily on our willingness and our ability to vest the next generation of leaders of the region with the skills and knowledge they require. We applaud the initiative to involve youth throughout APEC's 1997 activities. Education and skill-building remain key objectives for long-term employment of our youth, and we call on Ministers to work with young people, academics, workers and business to share approaches on successful transitions from the learning environment to the work force. We welcome the Electronic Source Book on work, study and exchange opportunities in the region, the establishment and development of the APEC Education Foundation, and the APEC Youth Skills Camp and the APEC Youth Science and Technology Festival, both to be held in 1998, in Seoul. We appreciate the offer by Singapore to establish an APEC Education Hub, which includes the granting of scholarships to APEC students. We welcome the holding of a Ministerial Conference on Education in 1999 in Singapore to explore the possibility to expand this initiative, offering quality programmes to students in the region.
We believe APEC should take specific steps to reinforce the important role of women in economic development. We welcome the offer of the Philippines to host a Ministerial Meeting on Women in 1998 in Manila, to take stock of progress to date in involving women in APEC's agenda and to determine next steps to integrate women into the mainstream of APEC's activities.