APEC touts human development
By Prapti Widinugraheni & Meidyatama Suryodiningrat
SUBIC, the Philippines (JP): Leaders of the 18-nation Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum pledged yesterday to give a human face to development.
A 26-point document, the APEC Economic Leaders' Declaration: From Vision to Action, emerged from the forum stressing prosperous and equitable development in the region besides the frequently lauded goals of trade liberalization.
The declaration also endorses the Manila Action Plan for APEC (MAPA), a collection of individual members' action plans for dismantling trade barriers to achieve APEC's free trade goals.
"We realize that our vision of community can be strengthened only if our efforts benefit all citizens," the leaders said.
The fourth APEC economic leaders meeting was held yesterday at the former U.S. naval base here some 120-kilometers from Manila.
The inaugural leaders meeting was held in Blake Island, Seattle, in 1993. It was followed by a leaders meeting in Bogor, West Java, in 1994 and one in Osaka, Japan, last year.
Attending the meeting were 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, Indonesian President Soeharto, Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto, South 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, Philippine President Fidel Ramos, Singapore Premier Goh Chok Tong, Taiwanese representative Koo Chen-Fu, Thailand Prime Minister Banharn Silpa-Archa and U.S. President Bill Clinton.
APEC aims for comprehensive trade liberalization by the year 2010 for developed members and 2020 for developing ones.
APEC chairman President Ramos read the declaration under gray skies at the end of the meeting while other leaders, donning barong shirts, stood attentively in a row behind him.
President Soeharto stood to Ramos' far right with Donald Tsang of Hong Kong and President Kim Young-sam of Korea flanking him.
Ramos said the human side of development was among the main tasks of the meeting and his own personal concern as APEC chairman.
"We emerged from our meeting determined to ensure that our peoples' standard of living and their environment are enhanced and any dislocations in their lives and livelihoods are mitigated," he said.
The leaders reaffirmed the central role of private business, and committed themselves to an increased role through ministerial consultations on trade and investment liberalization.
The private sector's role was highlighted as helping to alleviate the region's massive need for infrastructure development.
On MAPA, leaders expressed determination to sustain dynamism through continuous review, consultation and improvement of the plan with considerations on comparability and comprehensiveness.
The leaders set a target date of 2000 to support an agreement to eliminate tariffs on information technology at the World Trade Organization.
Some APEC ministers had, in a joint statement on Saturday, held back a U.S. push for consensus on a target date for tariff reduction in this sector.
"No one gave any objection," Ramos told journalists on the decision.
While yielding to the inclusion of a 2000 target, leaders underlined the need for flexibility.
"That's the magic of APEC," Ramos remarked on the leaders consensus.
Ramos described the 3.5-hour meetings as very friendly. There was a lot of "buddy language" between the leaders, he remarked.
Protests
Unlike previous APEC leaders meetings, protests caused havoc for many delegates and journalists on their way to Subic.
Several thousand "anti-APEC" protesters clogged the streets to Subic, forcing many delegates and journalists to turn back.
While the leaders, arriving by helicopter, were unaffected, it took the assiduous few who finally succeeded in making their way to Subic about 12 hours to complete the 120-kilometer drive.
Before the meeting, a time capsule ceremony was held in which leaders wrote their personal hopes and dreams for the 21st Century. Souvenir items from individual leaders were inserted.
The items were put in a chest which was taken to be stored at the Philippine national museum. It is scheduled to be opened in 2010 with the first free trade deadline.
At the end of the meeting, the leaders were whisked away in black Mercedes to their respective bungalows. But President Clinton was taken by his own bullet proof limousine from the United States.
Most leaders departed Subic yesterday to return home or go back to Manila. President Soeharto was scheduled to fly directly from Subic to Jakarta while President Clinton flew straight to Bangkok for a state visit.
The fifth APEC economic leaders meeting will be held in Vancouver in November 1997.
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