APEC to meet in Bangkok on anti-terrorism

APEC to meet in Bangkok on anti-terrorism

Adianto P. Simamora, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Top economic officials from the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation
(APEC) member countries will meet in Bangkok on Monday to discuss
ways of enhancing anti-terrorism security and help boost regional
trade.

Rifana Erni, directorate general of domestic trade affairs at
the Ministry of Trade and Industry said that the planned two-day
meeting would be focused on the "Secure Trade" initiative
proposed by the U.S.

"But we want to know what the U.S. concept is really about,"
Erni told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.

APEC secretariat said in a statement that the meeting would
begin working on reforms aimed at increasing both security
controls and the export trade.

The reforms are part of the Secure Trade in the APEC Region
(STAR) initiative, launched at last year's APEC leaders summit in
Los Cabos, Mexico.

Leaders then agreed to work to secure the flow of goods and
people through measures to protect cargo, ships engaged in
international voyages, international aviation and people in
transit.

"All APEC economies are strengthening air and sea port
security to protect against terrorist activities and threats,"
APEC executive director Piamsak Milintachinda said in the
statement as quoted by AFP.

"Increasingly stringent port processing procedures that are
not operating at full efficiency could incur additional
transaction expenses for exporters through delays and lost
opportunities," he said.

The issue of providing cargo and passenger details before they
leave their port of embarkation would be high on the agenda,
Piamsak said, along with discussions of a program to assure
container security.

Improvements to regional air safety will also be discussed, he
said.

According to Erni, her office is now boosting supervision on
the flow of goods traded at home to help ensure the safety of the
products and help stop terrorism.

"We are now conducting a check on the goods (both locally made
and imported) traded in the country. This is also aimed at
hampering terrorist attacks," Erni said.

Fears of terrorism continue to haunt the region following a
number of bomb blasts in the region by the Java-based Muslim
group Jamaah Islamiyah (JI).

After the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks and, more recently the Oct.
12 Bali terror attacks, the threat of terrorism has been a major
concern at all the APEC meetings.

The two highest-profile terrorist attacks of recent years
happened in APEC nations, the U.S. and Indonesia.

Last year, the summit in Mexico took place just two weeks
after the blast in Bali which killed more than 200 people, mostly
international tourists.

The Asian Development Bank, World Bank, International Maritime
Organization and the International Civil Aviation Organization
are scheduled to make presentations at the Monday conference, co-
hosted by the United States and Thailand.

APEC was set up in November 1989 and designed to boost
regional economic cooperation and investment liberalization.

It now has 21 member countries of Australia, Brunei, Canada,
Chile, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New
Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Russia,
Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, the United States and
Vietnam.

Thailand is to host this year's APEC leaders summit in
October.