Group sets blueprint for APEC leaders

Group sets blueprint for APEC leaders

SINGAPORE (Reuter): A group of business advisers to the Asia- Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum said on Saturday that it will recommend an aggressive timetable for cutting trade barriers in the region.

"Our leaders must move quickly and with dispatch to provide an economic environment which will allow the Asia-Pacific region to continue its dynamic growth levels that are the envy of the world," said Les McCraw, co-chair of the Pacific Business Forum (PBF).

The APEC advisory group, comprised of 36 business leaders from 16 countries, announced at a news conference it had completed a document mapping out how to advance the region's economic growth. The group was convened in June and met three times.

The report will be officially presented to the current chairman of APEC, Indonesian President Soeharto, on Oct. 15. It will be given to the leaders of APEC's economies at a November summit in Bogor, Indonesia.

APEC groups 18 major regional economies on both sides of the Pacific, including the United States, Japan, China, Australia, South Korea, Taiwan, and members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations: Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.

McCraw, who is chairman of Irvine, California-based construction company Fluor Corp, said he could not reveal specifics of the report before it is presented to Soeharto.

But he said it addresses further trade and investment liberalization and deregulation, the need for transparency, costs of capital and stability of exchange rates, border restrictions and business ethics.

"Our report dealt more in generic elements than specific country barriers," he said.

He said there is no mention of labor standards or politics. "This was an effort that dealt with commercial realities," said McCraw.

One theme of the document is that "free trade and investment liberalization must be accelerated at a faster rate than in the past", he said.

In drafting the report, there was no formal or informal discussion between the PBF and another APEC advisory panel, the Eminent Persons Group (EPG), said McCraw. The business group did not want to compromise its independence by consulting other bodies.

The EPG this week unveiled its own report, which recommended that the region complete the trade-liberalization process by the year 2020.

McCraw said that while he has not yet read the EPG's report, "My sense is, from what I've read in the newspaper, that the timetable of the PBF will be more aggressive," he said.

"Business people want things to happen. Businesspeople set high goals. Business people are proactive, and deal more in aggressive action."

He said he will be "very surprised" if there are not significant differences between the two reports.