HONOLULU, United States - As leaders from 21 economies of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum meet this weekend in Hawaii, they are expected to check the pulse of the world economy and mull measures to bolster growth in their region.

The Hawaii meeting, the 19th for APEC leaders, comes at a time of world economic uncertainty, with the European debt crisis still unresolved, inflationary pressure increasing and a slowdown of growth in Asia, and high levels of unemployment in the US and many developed countries.

Jeffrey Schott, a trade policy expert at Washington thinktank Peterson Institute for International Economics, said the forum will very likely take on a "broad global perspective".

"The biggest concern of the APEC members will be restoring global economic growth, getting more stability, and getting a stronger foundation for economic growth going forward. That's the principal concern leaders will have when they come to Honolulu," said Schott during a recent interview with Xinhua.

Schott believed APEC leaders would "focus first on global economic situation, because they represent half of the world economy. So obviously they'll have some concerns about the spillover effects of the crisis in Europe". But the meeting itself is not one about the European crisis, as that is mainly dealt with through each country's participation in the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

What leaders can do, is to make sure they work together and build on the success in previous years of strengthening cooperation between the 21 economies, noted Schott.

"The integration efforts are means of boosting productivity throughout the region, and thereby enhancing growth. So that's what you want the APEC economies to do. That's what they are trying to do, is work together more cooperatively, more efficiently so they boost economic growth throughout the region. That would lead to more trade and investment, and higher wages.

With a global perspective in mind, leaders of APEC economies will try to provide some certainty and stability.

"If you think about the effective governance of the world economy, you want to have these meetings provide continuity in effort and a coherence of effort between the partner economies, so that they can best work with each other to promote the best economic outcomes for themselves," Schott said.

Many experts agree that the Hawaii APEC is unlikely to produce big-ticket agreements in its prioritized areas of discussion, including strengthening regional economic integration and expanding trade, promoting green growth, and advancing regulatory coherence and cooperation.

"I think it's getting harder given all the distractions in the world economy to find some big trophy that would be hoisted at the end of the meeting like a world cup winner," Schott said.

Specifically on green growth, Michael Green, Japan Chair and Senior Adviser at Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), said last week that he expects most of the agreements made at APEC on the issue will be "aspirational".

When it comes to green growth, said Green, most of the economies are "in competition for these technologies in these markets. So an agreement that green growth is important can only go so far in terms of cooperation".

But APEC does have its values. Schott said the real value of the meeting will be to move forward the progress that has been achieved over the past few years in driving more productive investment and economic growth in the region.

"Hopefully we'll see a meeting where there are a lot of announcements of important progress and new initiatives or acceleration of efforts to put an agreement on the table."

On the sidelines of APEC, the forum's US host is determined to pursue the adoption of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), an Asia-Pacific regional trade agreement being negotiated among the United States and eight other partners, namely Australia, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.

Michael Green of CSIS noted the "real narrative" President Barack Obama would want to tell at the APEC will be "America has a trade agenda" signified by the TPP.

As a major country in the region, China has already outlined its expectations for the Honolulu meeting.

Chinese Assistant Commerce Minister Yu Jianhua said Monday China hopes the meeting will further promote the liberalization and facilitation of trade and investment in the Asia-Pacific region, push forward economic and technology cooperation, support multilateral trade systems, oppose trade protectionism, so as to inject vitality into world economic recovery and growth.