Taiwan has proposed the establishment of a regional typhoon monitoring system under the Asian Pacific Economic Corporation (APEC) forum, a Taiwan official said here Monday. Paul Wen-liang Chang, director of Department of International Organizations under Taiwan's Foreign Ministry, said typhoons can affect many countries in the Asia-Pacific region, necessitating the formation of a regional mechanism to detect them. Chang said it is part of the lesson his country learned from Typhoon Morakot, which barreled through Taiwan Aug. 8-9, taking a toll of about 600 lives and wreaking havoc on property. Chang, who attended the APEC senior officials meeting here on behalf of Taiwan, said after the meeting that his country was going to held a regional seminar later this year on the building up of disaster-prevention capacity. Taiwan will sound out the opinion of other members at the seminar and hopefully gain support for putting it on the agenda of the next APEC meeting in 2010. In answering questions from reporters, Chang said his delegation's interaction with its Chinese counterparts at the APEC meeting is improving. 'Taiwan and China jointly organized seminars in Taiwan and Sichuan, western China, in September 2008 on disaster prevention, and seminars in Taipei and Beijing on paperless trade, which helped build trust between us.' 'As full members of APEC, we dealt with each other naturally at the meeting, and exchanged views whenever it was necessary, ' Chang said. 'We believe this interaction serves the interests of both sides.' APEC is one of a few significant international organizations in which both Taiwan and China are members, and their interaction at such meetings is considered an important barometer of ties between them. 