The international congress "Striving for the New Millennium - 2000 11th Asian Pacific Congress of Gastroenterlogy and 8th Asian Pacific Congress of Digestive Endoscopy" was held on March 10 - 14 2000 at the Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre in Hong Kong. The congress was organized jointly by the Hong Kong Society of Gastroenterology and Hong Kong Society of Digestive Endoscopy. Highlights from the congress included a demonstration of therapeutic Endoscopic procedures transmitted live from the Prince of Wales hospital in Hong Kong; a one-day postgraduate course with updates in key areas in gastroenterology a one-day programme addressing key issues specifically related to gastroenteroloy nursing, and interactive case discussions with touch-pad systems to record participant responses.

This was a highly successful congress with some 2000 international participants and a large number of invited speakers (around 100) covering all key and clinically related areas of gastroenterology and hepatology. Hong Kong was most fortunate to have the privilege to host this at the Millennium Year and to get over 10 biomedical companies to sponsor this important function. The success of the Congress represented a turning point towards APAGE's future annual Asian Pacific Digestive Week (APDW), the first of which to be held in Sydney in 2001.