More concern about Japan's slow pace on APEC plan
JAKARTA (JP): Philippine Foreign Secretary Domingo Siazon further ignited concerns yesterday that Japan was sluggish in completing a free trade blueprint for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum.
"We share the concerns expressed by the President of Indonesia and the Prime Minister of Singapore," Siazon said, referring to Thursday's meeting between the two leaders in which Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong said Japan was not moving at "full steam" to realize the APEC vision.
"I think that the progress of APEC could be accelerated," Siazon told journalists after a meeting with his Indonesian counterpart Ali Alatas yesterday.
Siazon arrived yesterday morning for a three-day introductory visit as the new foreign secretary of the Philippines.
Last month he replaced Roberto Romulo, who resigned in the wake of the furor over the hanging of Filipina maid Flor Contemplation in Singapore.
Siazon said that he was hoping that a clear plan of action could be formulated to implement the Bogor Declaration during the next APEC Economic Leaders Meeting (AELM) in Osaka, Japan.
"We are hoping that there will be more progress than what we have seen today," he remarked.
During the last year's AELM in Bogor, West Java, leaders adopted the Bogor Declaration for comprehensive trade liberalization no later than 2010 for developed countries and 2020 for developing ones.
As APEC chairman, Japan is responsible for formulating a blueprint for realizing the Bogor Declaration.
APEC groups Australia, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, South Korea, Taiwan, and the United States with the six members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations -- Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.
Siazon said that one difficulty could be the speed with which the participating member economies of APEC are prepared to proceed, adding that it was difficult to illicit consensus from 18 economies.
At a separate occasion yesterday, Alatas refused to fault Japan for its apparent inertia.
"It is true that during the first meeting a few delegates perceived that kind of perception, but during the second meeting there was already evidence of progress," he said of the four senior officials meetings planned before the AELM in Osaka.
"Personally I would tend to say, give them a chance to continue their preparations," Alatas remarked.
Meeting Alatas and then separately with President Soeharto, on both occasions Siazon said he expects the issue of the South China Sea to be discussed during the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) meeting in Brunei next August.
"Inevitably, although maybe not as an ASEAN topic, in view of the great number of claimants to the Spratlys who are at the same time participants of ARF," he said alluding to the forum between ASEAN and its dialog partners.
Siazon also expressed appreciation of Indonesia's efforts in facilitating negotiations between Manila and the Moro National Liberation Front.
"This is not only a Philippine problem, this is a problem of many of the ASEAN countries closely located to the Philippines," he said. (mds)