How words fly from the APEC summit

How words fly from the APEC summit

By Irawan Abidin

JAKARTA (JP): When the leaders of 18 Pacific rim nations
gather in Bogor next month for the Asia-Pacific Economic
Cooperation Forum, they will be tackling, principally, trade and
economic issues. The most important activity, however, will be
communication: Consultations among leaders, negotiations on key
points among sides and reports to the world about what the issues
mean and what the forum has achieved.

Whether these reports take the form of written communiques,
individual position papers, joint statements or news conferences,
the success of the meeting will undoubtedly hinge as much on what
is said as on what is done. The communication professionals from
all 18 countries will, therefore, be playing an essential role.

One measure of the importance of the communicative role is the
interest among the world's media in the APEC Forum. More than
2,400 journalists covered the 1993 APEC Forum in Seattle, and we
expect a similar number to turn up here.

No communication activity of this magnitude can occur without
planning. With the help of communication specialists from the
member countries and a team of volunteers, the host country
fields the questions of thousands of reporters and assists them
in getting the information they need to file stories to send back
home.

The APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting (AELM) represents a
significant opportunity for Asia-Pacific leaders to improve their
understanding of the economic challenges and to encourage
cooperation among their nations. This can only be achieved if
they succeed in communicating in a way that breaks through
language and cultural barriers, and if the resulting messages are
disseminated properly in each society.

The APEC summit represents a mixture of communication methods.
Each country writes its own messages and disseminates them to its
own news organization as well as international news
organizations. This may involve distributing written statements
to the assembled media. It may also be accomplished by meeting
with journalists at summit venues or in the delegation's hotel
for one-on-one interviews or news conferences. Or it may involve
a formal news conference to which all the media are invited.

All these communication forms, whether issued individually or
jointly, require elaborate coordination by the communication
professionals involved in organizing the communication function
at the AELM, as well as extensive planning to effect the smooth
dissemination to the assembled media.

Coordinating this effort requires a clear understanding of how
information flows throughout the region.

Indonesia, as host of the November 1994 APEC summit, began
planning its communication support operations almost immediately
following the 1993 summit, when President Soeharto invited the
APEC leaders to convene the next summit in Indonesia.
Preparations are under way to provide credentials and work space
to more than 2,000 journalists. To accommodate these members of
the working media, we are designing an International Media
Center, which will provide a wide range of support services,
including:

* 30,000 square meters of workspace and briefing areas;

* Phone lines for voice and data;

* Daily delivery of local, national and international newspapers;

* Booths for vended services, including postal service,
express couriers, photocopying and automatic banking teller
machines;

* Two dozen audio and video broadcast studios;

* Facilities for off-line and on-line video editing;

* Electricity, furniture rental, local transportation services
and other basic supports.

Because of the variety of communication facilities among the
APEC members the above services must allow for different
approaches by media organizations from the various countries.

A key element in supporting the international media at the
APEC summit is a sophisticated telecommunications and satellite
communication system. In this, and other preparations, Indonesia
analyzed facilities provided at previous multilateral summit
meetings sponsored by APEC and other international groups, and
designed a system best suited for the countries and media
organizations involved.

Each journalist covering the summit requires access to a
wealth of background information about the summit, the
participating countries, the leaders representing those countries
and the history and facts about APEC itself. Such a formidable
body of information is assembled by teams of specialists from the
APEC Secretariat and will be provided to reporters in the
International Media Center. This clearinghouse role is extremely
important, and represents a major logistical challenge in itself.

This effort is just one example of many undertaken by the APEC
members to ensure productive relations with the media in order to
enhance the journalists' ability to present a fair, balanced and
accurate picture of the APEC meeting as well as the economic and
political situation in the region.

The writer is Director of Foreign Information of the Ministry
of Foreign Affairs.