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.