APEC begins first talks for Osaka summit
APEC begins first talks for Osaka summit
FUKUOKA, Japan (AFP): Senior officials of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum kicked off a three-day meeting here yesterday, the first talks since leaders of the 18-member group agreed to work towards the goal of free trade and investment in the region by 2020.
The meeting is the first in a series of high-level talks ahead of the annual gathering of APEC ministers in Osaka in November, which is to be followed by the third summit between APEC leaders.
At their second summit in the Indonesian city of Bogor three months ago, the APEC leaders set regional free trade and investment deadlines of 2010 for industrialized members and 2020 for developing members.
Japan, as this year's chairman and the world's biggest aid donor, is stressing economic and technical cooperation as a second "pillar" of APEC activities in addition to the broad area of trade and investment.
In a message to the opening session of the three-day meeting, Japanese Foreign Minister Yohei Kono said "specific strategic guidelines" were now needed to "govern the full spectrum of APEC activities into the 21st century" and that drafting an action agenda was the main task for this year.
"This action agenda must give a clear signal of our intention to maintain the momentum of the Bogor declaration," he said, adding that it also had to be "practical and flexible" enough to accommodate regional diversity.
"Comprehensive guidelines embodied in the action agenda should include elements of economic and technical cooperation, as well as measures to facilitate trade and investment liberalization."
Kono, who is also deputy prime minister, meanwhile defined the goals of a Japanese proposal to APEC known as the "partners for progress" initiative.
"Its objective is to mobilize the individual expertise and experience of each of the members of APEC to engage in mutual assistance," he said.
Concern
In a separate message, International Trade and Industry Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto said the immediate concern was to ensure that all members fulfilled Uruguay Round commitments to the World Trade Organization.
"Our longer term concern is, as noted in the Bogor declaration, to consider ways to deepen and broaden the outcome," the Japanese minister said.
Hashimoto also noted that the private sector was the driving force in APEC economies and that this should be reflected in the action agenda.
"We in APEC can further invigorate this private-sector activity by drawing up an action agenda that assures the private sector the realm of free economic activity will expand over the mid- to long-term," he said.
"Furthermore, it is equally important to give business a real sense of tangible progress by producing tangible results as soon as possible."
The three-day meeting in this southern Japanese city is being jointly chaired by Hiromoto Seki, Japan's new ambassador to APEC, and Hidehiro Konno, director general of the international trade and industry ministry's economic cooperation department.
Seki was named by the cabinet last Friday to succeed Tetsuya Endo, who is becoming the Japanese envoy to the Korea Energy Development Organization, an international consortium to make North Korea's nuclear program safer.
While senior APEC officials generally meet four times a year to prepare for the annual meetings of ministers responsible for foreign affairs and trade, this year's format is somewhat different with three meetings followed by "special" talks focussing on trade and investment in the longer term.
The Fukuoka meeting is expected to be followed by high-level talks in the northern Japanese city of Sapporo in July. The third meeting, expected to be held in October, will probably be in Tokyo, Japanese officials said.
APEC groups Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and the United States.