China would work with other economies of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) to advance regional cooperation under the chairmanship of Malaysia in 2020, a Chinese official said on Wednesday.

China APEC Senior Official Lu Mei, who headed the Chinese delegation to the 2020 APEC Informal Senior Officials' Meeting (ISOM) in Langkawi, Malaysia, extended congratulations to Malaysia for assuming the APEC host once again after 22 years. "China strongly supports Malaysia in hosting APEC 2020," said Lu.

"2020 will be an important year for APEC cooperation, as APEC will launch the Post-2020 Vision. At this critical juncture, APEC Malaysia Year bears great significance for regional cooperation in Asia-Pacific and the future of APEC itself," she said.

"China would like to work together with member economies, under the leadership of Malaysia, to advance APEC cooperation and achieve fruitful outcomes and deliverables in 2020."

The theme of the APEC Malaysia Year is "Optimizing Human Potential for a Future of Shared Prosperity," and the priority areas include trade and investment, digital economy, innovation, inclusiveness and sustainable development.

"During ISOM, member economies had in-depth discussions on the theme and priority areas of APEC 2020 and the Post-2020 Vision, laying a concrete foundation for next year's cooperation and formulation of the Post-2020 Vision," Lu said.

She underscored that China, as a steadfast advocate, supporter and promoter of regional economic cooperation, expects APEC to continue to uphold the mission of promoting free and open trade and investment.

"China will make joint efforts with member economies to deepen Asia-Pacific partnership, and achieve concrete results in areas such as regional economic integration, digital economy, connectivity, inclusiveness and sustainable development," said Lu.

"We are looking forward to building an Asia-Pacific community with a shared future of openness and inclusiveness, innovation-driven growth, greater connectivity, and mutually beneficial cooperation, to inject further impetus to economic growth in Asia-Pacific and the world."