In the 1980s, the wind of economic restructuring blew around the world, and in 1989 countries in the Asia-Pacific region set up the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, in the hope that ministerial-level dialogue between member economies would promote regional cooperation in the liberalization of regional trade and investment.
一九八○年代，全球吹起區域經濟整合風潮，亞太地區國家也在一九八九年成立亞太經濟合作會議，希望經由各會員體部長之間的對話，促進亞太地區貿易與投資自由化的區域合作。