APEC summit is make or break time for Indonesia<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC)
\nforum summit in Indonesia this November will give Indonesia a
\nchance to put itself on the map, but it will require thorough
\npreparation to be successful.<\/p>\n
That was the advice yesterday offered by officials from
\nWashington D.C. and Seattle, the United States, the latter the
\nhost of the successful first APEC summit last year.<\/p>\n
Arthur Green, Deputy Director of the Foreign Press Center at
\nthe White House, said, during a Worldnet dialog beamed from
\nWashington, that the APEC summit would provide huge business
\nopportunities as well as media publicity for Indonesia.<\/p>\n
Green recalled that more than 3,000 journalists converged on
\nSeattle to cover the many APEC meetings.<\/p>\n
\"It is an opportunity to showcase trade, investment and
\ntourism for the host country,\" he said. \"It's worth millions of
\ndollars of free publicity.\"<\/p>\n
Green, however, recalled that hosting the summit involved
\nmajor logistical arrangements that would have been impossible
\nwithout the assistance of Seattle's business and civic
\ncommunities that made up the host committee.<\/p>\n
Jane Noland of the Seattle City Council, who is currently
\nvisiting Indonesia, said that more and more people across the
\nglobe learned about Seattle because of the summit.<\/p>\n
Hosting it has also opened up major business opportunities for
\nlocal firms, not just corporate giants like Boeing and Microsoft,
\nbut also the smaller ones, Noland said. \"It's a wonderful
\nopportunity to lay groundwork for the future.\"<\/p>\n
The Worldnet dialog, organized by the U.S. Information Service
\n(USIS) of the American embassy, also presented Terry Ray of ABC
\nNews and Gary Sheaffer of the State Department. In Jakarta, the
\npanel consisted of Ishadi and Akmalsyah Naina of the Ministry of
\nInformation and Parni Hadi, editor of the Republika daily.<\/p>\n
Later in a roundtable discussion organized by USIS, they were
\njoined by four people from Seattle -- Noland, Raymond Waldmann of
\nBoeing, Page Miller of Seattle Commissioner and Bill Stafford of
\nthe city's chamber of commerce.<\/p>\n
U.S. Ambassador Robert L. Barry said the APEC summit would be
\na major opportunity for Indonesia to become better-known abroad.<\/p>\n
\"Not many people in America know about Indonesia,\" Barry said,
\nrecalling that no less than President Clinton once mentioned that
\nIndonesia is one of the world's most underestimated countries.<\/p>\n
The APEC summit, which goes by the official name of APEC
\nLeadership Economic Meeting, or ALEM, is tentatively set for Nov.
\n15 at the Presidential Palace in Bogor, some 60 kilometers south
\nof Jakarta. Prior to that, there will be the annual APEC
\nministerial meeting, which will be held in either Jakarta or
\nBali.<\/p>\n
Director General of Press and Graphics, Subrata, who took part
\nin the discussion yesterday, said that the government has not yet
\nestablished the organizing committee for the APEC summit.<\/p>\n
Subrata, however, was confident that logistics would proceed
\nsmoothly, given Indonesia's experience in hosting the 10th Summit
\nof the Non-Aligned Movement in 1992 which brought together
\nleaders and representatives from 104 countries.<\/p>\n
The APEC summit in Indonesia will be slightly larger than that
\nheld in Seattle since there will be two newcomers to the club --
\nMexico and Chile.<\/p>\n
The other 16 APEC members are the United States, Canada,
\nJapan, South Korea, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Australia, New
\nZealand, Papua New Guinea and the six members of the Association
\nof Southeast Asian Nations -- Indonesia, Brunei, Malaysia, the
\nPhilippines, Singapore and Thailand. (emb)<\/p>",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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