The meeting discussed policies to facilitate the integration process of the garment and textile industry, such as tariffs, customs procedures and trade promotion, and boost regional cooperation in this area.

Delegations came from Cambodia, Malaysia, Laos, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

The meeting was expected to offer the chance for enterprises to seek business contacts and partners.

Meet on regional e-tourism

A conference called "Asia-Pacific e-Tourism for Growth: Matching Market Efficiency and Social Inclusion" today and tomorrow in Kinabalu, the capital of Sabah state on Borneo Island, will be the first Asia-Pacific gathering on the topic.

UN Conference on Trade and Development secretary-general Supachai Panitchpakdi and UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific executive secretary Kim Hak-su will attend the meeting, together with ministers of tourism and information technology, government officials and national and international experts.

The conference will provide a forum for exploring the use of information and communications-technology (ICT) tools to promote tourism and for exchanging experiences and best practices. It will also be a significant event to advocate e-tourism in the Asia-Pacific.

The conference will focus on ICT and its impact and role in the development of the tourism sector, including management of information and networking, "e-payments" and "e-branding", ICT and sustainable tourism, using ICT to build partnerships between small- and medium-sized tourism firms and tourism e-marketing.