APEC business advisors announce 15-point plan

APEC business advisors announce 15-point plan

TOKYO (AFP): Business advisors to the Asia-Pacific Economic
Cooperation (APEC) forum unveiled yesterday a 15-point plan for
achieving the goal of free and open trade and investment in the
region over the next 25 years.

"The stage has been set for action this year," the Pacific
Business Forum said in a report delivered to Japan's Prime
Minister Tomiichi Murayama, who is chairing this year's summit of
APEC leaders in Osaka in November.

"APEC must make itself more relevant to business. It must
address issues which will improve the commercial climate in the
region in the near term," the report said, noting that six years
had passed since the group, now comprising 18 members, first met
under an Australian initiative in 1989.

"If APEC does not provide tangible results which have real
world implications for the business sector, it will risk losing
credibility in the eyes of the business community," the advisory
group warned.

The specific measures outlined in the report are aimed at
reaching the free trade and investment deadlines of 2010 for
industrialized members and 2020 for developing ones, agreed to at
last year's meeting of APEC leaders in Indonesia.

Three of the 15 recommendations are considered as part of a
"road map" to reach the joint goals, setting out guiding
principles on trade and investment, various deadlines focussing
on 1996-2000 and mechanisms to review progress.

"Unless the groundwork is laid in those first four years, the
APEC process could stagnate," the report warned.

The group, set up in June last year after the first meeting of
APEC leaders in Seattle in 1994, also outlined what it called
"Osaka deliverables, " namely 10 areas where short-term outcomes
are needed to free trade and investment, help business
transactions and promote development cooperation.

In the field of trade and investment, the report called for
"concrete plans" to progress beyond commitments already made in
the Uruguay Round of global trade talks, echoing calls made by
another APEC advisory group last month.

The report also called for non-binding investment principles
agreed to in Indonesia last year to be strengthened in time for
next year's meeting in the Philippines. These principles should
become law in industrialized members by 2000 and in developing
members by 2005.

Immigration

To facilitate business, the group called for the relaxation of
immigration rules for business travelers within the APEC region
starting next year as an initial step towards complete visa-free
business travel by 1999.

The report also urged APEC to harmonize customs procedures by
2000 while expanding its work on product standards, completing it
in a shorter period. Also recommended were a set of technology
transfer principles and science cooperation guidelines, and the
creation of trade and investment ombudsmen.

In the field of development cooperation, the report called for
the creation of an infrastructure taskforce, various measures to
promote small and medium-sized businesses including the setting
up of a training center in the Philippines and other steps to
promote human resources development.

The remaining two measures concern the business forum itself.
The report called for a permanent APEC Business Council to be set
up after November in either Singapore or Manila and a bigger
private-sector role in APEC activities.

The business forum is jointly chaired by Minoru Murofushi,
president of Japanese trading house Itochu Corp., Bustanil
Arifin, president of Indonesia's PT PP Berdikari, and Les McCraw,
president of Fluor Corp. of the United States.

Other members include top executives of Australia's Pacific-
Dunlop Ltd., Brunei LNG, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Daewoo
Electronics Chile SA, China International Trust and Investment
Corp., Hong Kong Telecommunications Ltd., South Korea's Hyosung
group and South Malaysia Industries Bhd.

Also represented are Mexico's Procesos Industrializes
Forestals SA, New Zealand's Hellaby Holdings Ltd., Papua New
Guinea's Tanubada Dairy Products Pty. Ltd., Philippine Airlines,
Singapore's Haw Par Brothers International Ltd., Taiwan's I-Mei
Foods Co, Ltd. and Thailand's Pan Asia (1981) Ltd.