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.