S.Korea's Lee to attend APEC summit

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak is scheduled to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit that opens Sunday in Honolulu, Hawaii, Lee's office said Thursday. Lee, who leaves for Hawaii Saturday, is expected to call for joint international efforts to achieve economic growth and job creation not through trade protectionism but technological innovation. At the 21-member forum, the president is also to deliver a speech in a session on deregulation and introduce South Korea's successful deregulation measures. A recent report by the World Bank placed the country at the eighth place in terms of deregulation, up from the 30th in 2007. Lee also plans to urge technological cooperation between advanced and developing countries on energy efficiency, and call for further regional efforts to create a Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP). The president is expected to sit down with other heads of states for summit talks on the sidelines of the APEC summit.