APEC meeting ends with pledge to improve infrastructure
By Meidyatama
Suryodiningrat
NUSA DUA, Bali (JP): Senior officials of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum have agreed to recommend improved cooperation on infrastructural development and on the nurturing of smaller-scale businesses.
At the close of the second three-day APEC senior officials meeting (SOM) on Friday, delegates expressed the need to deal with the regions growing infrastructure demands.
Saodah Syahruddin, director for economic relations among developing countries at the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said APEC's member economies have responded positively to Indonesia's proposal to focus on infrastructure as a central area for cooperation.
APEC groups the United States, Mexico, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, China, South Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Canada, Brunei, Australia and New Zealand.
"The senior officials agreed to discuss cooperation on infrastructures at their next meeting," Saodah explained.
Indonesia, as chairman of APEC, has identified developing human resources, small and medium-scale enterprises, private sector participation and improvement of infrastructures as key areas of concentration.
Investment
During lunch after the closing of the SOM, Saodah explained that the region, which represents 40 percent of the world's population, will require about US$1 trillion in infrastructure investment by the year 2010.
The Indonesian government has also anticipated this need by assigning the Ministries of Transportation, Mines and Energy, Public Works and Tourism and Post and Telecommunications to deal with the challenges.
Speaking on small and medium enterprises, Saodah said the definitions of "small" and "medium" have yet to be made.
"Some would say that a small business is run by 10 people and others say 100 people," she said. "We are still trying to work it out."
During the SOM, delegates reviewed the results of last month's meeting in Jakarta of APEC's Expert Group on Small and Medium Enterprises and endorsed it as an initial program which will be further discussed at the group's next meeting in Yogyakarta in September.
Johan Syahperi Saleh, the chief of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' bureau for economic affairs of the ASEAN National Secretariat, said the problems of small and medium enterprises are related to access to markets and financing facilities, limitations in management abilities and technology and limited access to information.
"We need policies that are conducive to overcoming these obstacles," he said.
The SOM also agreed that the expert group should begin to study strategies for promoting financing for small and medium enterprises.
The SOM also set tentative dates for the upcoming events. The third SOM will be held in Yogyakarta on Sept. 10-14 and the fourth in Jakarta on Nov. 6-10.
The APEC Ministerial Meeting will be held in Jakarta one day after the fourth SOM on Nov. 11-12 and prior to the APEC Economic Leaders Meeting to be held at the Presidential Palace in Bogor, West Java, on Nov. 15.
The senior officials also agreed to invite Chile, APEC's newest member, to take part in their next meeting.
The SOM, however, failed to reach a consensus on requests by non-member economies to participate in the meetings of APEC's working groups. Countries such as Vietnam have recently conveyed to President Soeharto their wish to take part in these discussions.