APEC wants economic gaps closed

By Meidyatama Suryodiningrat

NUSA DUA, Bali (JP): The second Senior Official Meeting (SOM) of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) began here yesterday with a call to narrow the economic gap between the developed and developing member nations.

"It is crucial for the developing economies in APEC to achieve a rate of development that will allow them to reduce the gap between themselves and their highly industrialized partners," Director General for Foreign Economic Relations Wisber Loeis said at the opening of the three-day meeting.

Wisber said that for this reason, it is important that the four fields of cooperation in the APEC framework -- human resources development, promotion of small and medium scale industries, private sector participation and improvement of infrastructures -- should be prioritized.

The meeting is the second of four SOMs to held in preparation for the sixth APEC Ministerial Meeting due to be held in Jakarta in November.

Over 250 officials from the 17-member states are attending the meeting at the Bali International Convention Center at Nusa Dua's complex of luxury hotels.

APEC, currently presided over by Indonesia, is comprised of Canada, the United States, Mexico, Japan, Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, South Korea, Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Brunei, Papua New Guinea, Australia and New Zealand.

Wisber explained that, as chairman, Indonesia hopes the current SOM will try to broaden and intensify the four fields of cooperation.

He said the recently signed Uruguay Round of multilateral trade negotiations in Marrakesh, Morocco, will have a positive impact on APEC.

"The newly concluded Round may provide a fresh impetus for APEC members to work towards more a liberalized trade and investment regime in the region," he said.

Talking to reporters following the first session of yesterday's meeting, Wisber said many of the delegates were delighted that Bali was chosen as the venue of the SOM.

"They have commended Indonesia for the selection of the site," he said. "Of course, I didn't tell them that it added costs," he added modestly.

Wisber would not reveal much about the contents of the first- day's meeting but said that the provisional agenda for the SOM had been approved. He added that participants were reviewing the reports of the various working groups and committees, which had meetings a week in advance.

Proceedings

At the conclusion of yesterday's events, several delegates explained that much of the proceedings dealt with the works of the Committee on Trade and Investment (CTI).

Among the most important items discussed was the adoption of an APEC Investment Principal, which included such issues as non- discrimination and free movement of assets.

With the United States and Australia as the main initiators, it was agreed that the latter would be responsible for producing a draft of the Investment Principals.

Another topic on the agenda was the issue of promotion of small and medium scale enterprises. Apparently no concrete results have been yielded except for the fact that Taiwan will be responsible for drawing-up a draft proposal.

Among the issues to be discussed in today's meeting will be the creation of a Pacific Business Forum, which will be an assembly of business persons throughout the Asia Pacific region.

The delegates have also proposed that two persons represent each country in the first meeting of the business forum scheduled to be held in Singapore from June 10 to June 11.

At this point, Indonesia and Japan have already announced their representatives. Indonesia will be represented by eminent businessman A.R. Ramli and a former minister of cooperatives, Bustanil Arifin. Japan has selected the president and vice president of Itochu as their representatives -- Minoru Morohushi and Nobuo Tateishi, respectively.