HONG KONG, May 26 (Xinhua) -- A senior official with the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) government said on Saturday that Hong Kong supports high quality bilateral and regional economic arrangements that would add momentum to further trade and investment liberalization, contributing to the realization of the long-term vision of the Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific.

Edward Yau, Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development, made the remarks during a discussion on the second day of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Ministers Responsible for Trade (MRT) Meeting in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, according to a press release by the SAR government.

"As an economy which champions free and open trade for years, Hong Kong consistently practices what we preach, and has been duly recognized for decades by international institutions as the world's freest economy for 24 years in a row. We firmly believe that inclusive economic growth and free and open trade can go hand-in-hand, reinforcing each other," he said.

Yau said being a services-oriented economy, Hong Kong welcomes APEC's progress in the implementation of the APEC Services Competitiveness roadmap. Hong Kong will continue to work with APEC member economies in the implementation of the road-map. He hoped all APEC members could make the best of APEC's strength as a forward looking, highly motivated driving force for open and free trade and investment in the world when developing its post 2020 vision.

At the conclusion of the MRT meeting, a chair's statement that represents APEC's prevailing view in support of the Multilateral Trading System was issued. Participating ministers also endorsed the MRT statement which reaffirmed APEC member economies' commitment to improving connectivity and deepening regional economic integration, promoting sustainable and inclusive growth, strengthening inclusive growth through structural reform and strengthening economic and technical cooperation.