APEC leaders meet today
APEC leaders meet today
By Prapti Widinugraheni and Meidyatama Suryodiningrat
MANILA (JP): Leaders of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation
(APEC) forum in their meeting today are expected elevate the role
of the private sector in achieving the forum's goals of regional
free trade, officials said yesterday.
In a day-long meeting at Subic, the 18 APEC leaders are
expected to issue a declaration highlighting the integral role of
business.
The elevated role of the private sector has been a distinct
feature in the APEC talks which will climax with today's APEC
Economic Leaders Meeting.
For the first time, a gathering of top business executives,
the APEC Business Forum, was held concurrently with the two-day
eighth APEC Ministerial Meeting from Friday.
The first APEC leaders meeting was held in Blake Island,
Seattle, in 1993. The next was held in Bogor, West Java, in 1994
and then in Osaka, Japan, last year.
The leaders at this year's meeting include Australian Prime
Minister John Howard, Brunei's Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, Canadian
Prime Minister Jean Chretien, Chilean President Eduardo Frei,
Chinese President Jiang Zemin, Hong Kong's financial secretary
Donald Tsang and Indonesian President Soeharto.
Other leaders at the meeting include Japanese Prime Minister
Ryutaro Hashimoto, Korean President Kim Young-sam, Malaysian
Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, Mexican President Ernesto
Zedillo, New Zealand Prime Minister James Bolger, Papua New
Guinea Prime Minister Julius Chan, Singaporean Premier Goh Chok
Tong, Taiwanese representative Koo Chen-Fu, Thailand Prime
Minister Banharn Silpa-Archa and United States President Bill
Clinton.
Final text
While the final text of the declaration is being kept under
lock and key, some officials told The Jakarta Post that
integrating businesses' contribution toward APEC was among the
features of the declaration.
The leaders are expected to instruct their ministers to review
the individual action plans for trade liberalization with their
countries' top executives.
Ministers are also likely to be told to consult the private
sector on areas where early liberalization would have support.
Leaders are expected to ask their ministers to examine the
prospects of public, private and international financial
institutions stimulating the private sector to provide
infrastructure.
Other themes expected to be flagged by the leaders is APEC's
contribution to the World Trade Organization, and support for
China's and Taiwan's entry to it.
Another important issue that is likely to be reinforced by the
leaders is the strengthening of economic cooperation and
development.
The ministers at the end of their meeting on Saturday issued a
declaration, the Framework for Strengthening Economic Cooperation
and Development.
APEC leaders today will be expected to endorse and direct
ministers to ensure that the principles contained in the
ministerial declaration are faithfully implemented.
The drafted four-page leaders' declaration is also expected to
focus on sustainable growth and increasing people to people
links.
Some 120 kilometers from Manila, the former U.S. military base
of Subic has been converted into a resort and industrial area.
New bungalows have been built to accommodate the leaders and
their entourage.
The leaders will not be accompanied by ministers or advisors
at the meeting. Only interpreters will be allowed to accompany
the leaders. Their personal aids may wait in a nearby room.
Before the meeting's first session, the leaders will first
hold a time capsule ceremony, in which each leader will submit
his vision of the future.
The talks are scheduled to end around 3 p.m. followed by a
reading of the leaders' declaration and a news conference by
President Ramos as the meeting's chairman.
While the APEC meetings have so far proceeded with only mild
demonstrations, police have set-up check points along the roads
to Subic.
Local anti-APEC demonstrators have threatened to block roads
leading to Subic.