Canada hopes for recognition at APEC forum this year

By Devi M. Asmarani

JAKARTA (JP): Canada hopes to gain worldwide recognition from hosting this year's Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, the country's ambassador to Indonesia, Gary Smith, said yesterday.

Smith told The Jakarta Post his country looked forward to promoting its potential to the media and the delegates of APEC'S 18 members during the one-week event in Vancouver, a port city in the province of British Columbia.

"We want to consolidate our position as a leading member and as part of the Asia Pacific community, as half of the world's trade is done within these 18 countries," he said.

"This is an opportunity to showcase Vancouver and Canada, our technology, organizational skills and our location as a tourist, study and business destination," he added.

He said Canada was an "unknown giant", despite the fact that it was geographically the second largest country in the world and that its economy was among the world's major ones.

Canada is hosting the fifth APEC Economic Leaders Meeting and the ninth Ministerial Meeting from Nov. 19 to Nov. 25.

APEC groups Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and the United States.

The group's two-day senior officials meeting started Wednesday, and is followed by ministerial meetings scheduled for today and tomorrow.

The forum's summit, to be attended by economic leaders from the 18 countries, is scheduled for next Monday and Tuesday.

Smith said Canada had been preparing for the event for two years. It expected to accommodate over 8,000 participants including government officials, business leaders, non- governmental activists and media representatives, he said.

The preparation cost about C$50 million, some $9 million of which came from the private sector and the rest from the Canadian federal government and the city of Vancouver, he said.

The event is expected to generate over $23 million for the local economy, he said.

Smith said this year's APEC forum would likely adopt two subjects that have previously not been discussed. These are the currency situation in the region and sustainable growth.

Unlike in previous meetings, this one would be attended by delegates from economies that had been suffering from currency problems and reductions in their stock markets this year, he said.

He said APEC leaders might discuss the situation and form a consensus, which would likely be done in support of the International Monetary Funds.

The forum might also come up with an economic crisis surveillance measure, which would function as an early warning mechanism for similar situations, he said.

Should such a measure be adopted, countries would watch each other's economies, spot any difficulties emerging, and help find a remedy, he said.

The APEC forum would also focus on environmentally-friendly development, he said.

"Discussions will look at how we can grow and at the same time make sure these burgeoning cities we have are livable," he said.

The haze caused by forest fires in some of Indonesia's islands would likely be in the back of delegates' minds during the forum he said.

He said the summit would likely create a proposal for emergency response cooperation within the community.

The proposal would be a long-term plan among the country members to respond to natural and manmade disasters in the Asia- Pacific region.

Smith said Canada was also looking for further implementation of the Bogor objective, which sets a deadline for free and open trade and investment between APEC members by 2010 for developed countries and 2020 for developing ones.

The declaration was established during the APEC 1994 summit in Bogor, West Java.

He said this year's forum would look to further establish early sectoral trade liberalization by cutting down tariffs of certain export items.

Canada, like Indonesia, has avidly supported the inclusion of forestry and fishery products among the items prioritized in the early trade liberalization lists, he said.

"Fishery and forestry are two of the areas that Indonesia and Canada are strong in," he said, adding the two countries were pushing forward to reduce all related tariffs by no later than 2003.

Canada, New Zealand, the United States and Indonesia also wanted to reduce tariffs on wood products beginning in 1999, and eliminating them entirely by 2004, he said.