APEC wants economic gaps closed
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.