APEC business leaders to meet in Bali

APEC business leaders to meet in Bali

Evi Mariani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Top business leaders from APEC economies will gather in Bali from
July 30 through Aug. 2 to boost cooperation on trade and
investment liberalization.

Top officials from world-class companies like FedEx, Fuji
Xerox and Cemex are among prominent business leaders invited to
the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Business Advisory
Council (ABAC) meeting.

"Besides various important topics to be discussed in the
meeting, we see the event as an effective vehicle for attracting
foreign investors back (to Indonesia)," Palgunadi T. Setyanto, a
member of ABAC Indonesia told a media briefing on Tuesday.

"If the event is successfully arranged, the participating
businesspeople will be our 'ambassadors', who can announce that
Indonesia is a good place to do business," he added.

ABAC represents business communities from 21 APEC countries,
and is tasked with advising economic leaders in each country
regarding trade and investment liberalization. ABAC was founded
by APEC economic leaders in 1995.

ABAC meetings are usually organized prior to APEC meetings to
give recommendations to economic leaders on liberalization and
globalization issues from a business perspective.

For this year, ABAC organized three meetings: in Peru, in
March; in Tokyo, May; and in Indonesia, July, prior to the APEC
summit meeting in Bangkok in October 2003.

Palgunadi said that the July ABAC meeting's agenda was to
discuss progress on the trade and investment liberalization drive
in the region and issues regarding global financial stability.

"For example, so far, there are no regulations controlling the
financial world. The situation has proven to be disastrous: As
you may remember, financial instability was the issue that
triggered the Asian economic crisis," he said.

"We need to establish a working group to create financial
stability," he said.