APEC business leaders make $2b worth of deals

APEC business leaders make $2b worth of deals

MANILA (Reuter): Asia Pacific businessmen emerged from a two- day meeting on the fringe of the annual APEC summit with a rich haul -- business deals worth over $2 billion and contacts to bring more business.

Yesterday, the 600 or so chief executives of some of the biggest companies in the region celebrated their parallel "summit", where deal-making and networking topped the agenda. Many played golf, while others toured nearby Corregidor Island.

At their two-day meet, which ended on Saturday, at least 20 agreements worth $2 billion were finalized between different U.S. and Philippine companies, said Rizalino Navarro, former Philippine trade and industry secretary.

Joint ventures with Thailand and Indonesian firms are also being worked out by Philippine firms, Navarro said.

"We realize that the Philippines is important to U.S. trade now and will be even more important in the future," U.S. Commerce Secretary Mickey Kantor said at a ceremony where the U.S. and Philippine governments signed 10 agreements and a U.S. Export Import Bank letter of interest.

The U.S. Exim Bank gave preliminary approval for a $255 million package to back sales of U.S. equipment and services for the Philippines' Mabuhay II telecommunications satellite.

Kantor said American firms, with the support of the U.S. government, were expected to invest billions of dollars in the Philippines over the next three to five years.

Earlier, the Philippine Board of Investments said Seagate Technologies Inc and United Parcel Services of the U.S. were among those due to sign joint venture agreements.

"The main value of this conference is networking," Manuel Pangilinan, managing director of First Pacific Co, said.

To the Philippines, which is hosting this year's meetings of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, the new contracts were probably the only concrete benefits it got.

"As one who has traveled the world in search of potential investors... what makes my day today is the sight in this convention hall of a sea of CEOs," Philippine President Fidel Ramos said at the opening of the APEC Business Forum.

The forum was Ramos' idea of capitalizing on the annual APEC event, at which officials and ministers from the 18 member economies grappled for agreement on trade issues.

On Saturday, a declaration at the end of two days of ministerial talks fell short of a commitment to free trade in computers, memory chips and telecommunications equipment.

Back-room negotiations to cobble together the agreement exposed gaps between developed and developing nations over whether APEC should impose a trade agenda on its members or remain a loose coalition moving ahead through consensus.

A small group of about 50 businessmen appointed to advise on how the group should implement its stated goals of freeing trade were due to meet APEC leaders yesterday evening.

This group, called the APEC Business Advisory Council, would recommend that the trade grouping should move faster by advancing its 2020 target date for freeing trade, Roberto Romulo, chairman of the council said.