APEC's eminent figures due to meet Soeharto
APEC's eminent figures due to meet Soeharto
JAKARTA (JP): The chairman of the Eminent Persons Group (EPG),
C. Fred Bergsten, will present the group's second report to
President Soeharto, currently the chairman of the Asia-Pacific
Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, here next week.
The report, drafted during a policy session in Tokyo in July,
contains a blueprint for the implementation of proposals
introduced during last year's inaugural APEC Leaders Meeting on
Blake Island, Seattle.
Bergsten will be accompanied by the Indonesian and Japanese
representatives in the EPG, Suhadi Mangkusuwondo and Ippei
Yamazawa, respectively.
The results of the EPG report are expected to figure highly in
the agenda of the APEC summit here in November.
The EPG was established in 1992 with the aim of creating an
outline for APEC's future. It consists of 16 representatives from
the academic and business fields along with other noted persons
having special expertise.
Bergsten is also scheduled to attend the third APEC Senior
Officials Meeting in Yogyakarta from Sept. 12-14.
Though yet to be formally made public, Minister/State
Secretary Moerdiono admitted on Monday that the report has
leaked. "To tell you the truth there has been a breach, but what
has been leaked out does not reflect the views of the EPG."
Nevertheless sources said that reports on EPG's proposal to
adopt an explicit timetable for the creation of a free trade area
by the year 2020 are accurate.
In the proposal the group targets the removal of all trade
barriers by 2010 for developed nations, 2015 for newly
industrialized nations and 2020 for the developing ones.
In addition, a dispute settlement mechanism, similar to the
one being created by the newly formed World Trade Organization
(WTO), is also being proposed.
Moerdiono however played down the impact of the coming EPG
report, saying that the group is not a political decision-making
body. "They are just experts, so their views may not concur with
the leaders perceptions...it is the leaders who will make the
decisions," he said. (mds)