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.