Leaders upbeat on APEC's future

MANILA (JP): APEC leaders said they were satisfied with the outcome of their summit yesterday, with Indonesia and China stressing economic cooperation programs to address the disparity between rich and poorer members.

"President Soeharto is satisfied," Minister/State Secretary Moerdiono said on board his flight home to Jakarta. His remarks were broadcast on TVRI last night.

Moerdiono said that at the meeting in Subic, the President stressed partnership was the best way to address the disparity between the advanced economies and the developing ones.

"Through partnership, the advanced economies ought to give the less advanced economies an opportunity to catch up," Moerdiono said.

Soeharto stressed that private businesses must be involved in various APEC processes, and that small and medium enterprises be given a fair go, the minister said.

Chinese Foreign Minister Qian Qichen, speaking on behalf of President Jiang Zemin, said in Manila that APEC's economic and technical cooperation program was sorely lagging behind the pace of trade and liberalization measures.

He said it took APEC eight years to establish a framework to boost development cooperation among members.

"Because of the differences in the levels of development in the member economies, it is very difficult for liberalization in the field to be pushed forward in accordance with a timetable," Xinhua news agency quoted Jian as saying.

U.S. President Bill Clinton secured APEC leaders support, albeit a qualified one, for his call to substantially cut tariffs on an annual US$500 billion global trade in computers, memory chips and telecommunications equipment.

Clinton described the support as a "big deal" that would boost U.S. exports and create better jobs, Reuters reported.

"Every year we sell $100 billion in information technology and that sector supports almost two million jobs in the United States," Clinton said after the one-day summit.

"So imagine if we went to zero tariffs in the entire world. That would mean to America more exports and higher paying jobs," he told U.S. embassy employees.

U.S. Trade Representative spokesman Jay Ziegler said: "Substantially eliminate is tradespeak for zero."

Taiwan's representative to the leaders meeting, Koo Chen-Fu, said he was both "satisfied and a little unsatisfied."

"We did not totally fulfill the spirit of community," he said on the meeting's atmosphere.

Koo said the forum should have involved more business participation because APEC had reached a stage of "action" in which businesses could play a major role.

This year's meeting should have stressed how each APEC member could prepare itself for next year when members start carrying out their individual action plans.

Koo said he was "very impressed" with the hospitality and warmth displayed by host President Ramos.

There appeared to be an agreement among the APEC leaders to allow new entrants into the forum earlier than originally planned.

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said the leaders agreed to admit Vietnam and Peru as early as 1998, when Malaysia hosts the APEC meeting.

"Everyone is agreed that Vietnam and Peru should be admitted as soon as possible," Mahathir told a news conference after the summit.

Mahathir said the leaders wanted "to keep a cosy membership" by limiting membership in an informal way. "If APEC is to be effective the membership should not be too large as to be unwieldy."

Indonesian Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Alatas told reporters on the flight back to Jakarta that the leaders agreed to speed up the admission process from three years to two years.

"This is something the Indonesian delegation has been fighting for," Alatas said.

He did not name any particular countries but said some new members would be admitted by 1998.

Indonesia has been pushing for the membership of Vietnam, which this year formally joined the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

Qian said China would support the admission of Russia into APEC.

On the leaders' conclusion for an information technology agreement at the World Trade Organization (WTO), Qian said China had given its views at yesterday's meeting, although it was not a member of the WTO.

"It is understandable that measures can be taken to develop the sector... but it should be negotiated whether the target date should be 2000, whether tariffs should be brought down to zero and whether it should cover such a wide range of products," Qian said. (pwn/mds/emb)