Philippines can handle next APEC summit: Ramos

Philippines can handle next APEC summit: Ramos

MANILA (AFP): President Fidel Ramos yesterday lashed out at
congressmen who had charged that the Philippines could not afford
to host the next APEC summit in 1996.

Ramos told a press conference that his critics "do not know
their arithmetic," describing their concerns as "unfounded ...
insular, parochial and provincial."

The congressmen had said that the summit would cost 1.2
billion pesos (US$46.15 million) to stage and was not only too
expensive, but the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum
had never done anything for the Philippines anyway.

Ramos, however, said the 1996 APEC summit would cost about 400
million pesos ($15 million) and that private sector contributions
would bring the government's bill down even further.

Ramos' comments came the day after a senior official from one
APEC member said that putting together the multitude of plans for
the next summit would be a "nightmare" for any country let alone
the Philippines, one of the group's poorest members.

"People think Ramos is genuinely committed. But not everyone
has the resources of Japan," he said, referring to Japanese
chairmanship of APEC which has won considerable praise from other
members over the past year.

But yesterday, Ramos said "we are not going to duplicate
Osaka. We will do it our way so that we can fulfill our
mission ... to integrate some 1,100 to 1,500 national,
regional ... and multilateral plans ... so that we have a
harmonious road map to the 21st century."

"That kind of work we can handle and we must not shy away from
it," he added.

Australia

Meanwhile, Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating said in
Canberra yesterday that Australia will ultimately gain 500,000
new jobs as a result of the free trade targets agreed at the APEC
summit in Osaka.

Keating told parliament that Australia's real income would
rise by 6.8 percent or A$40 billion dollars (US$30 billion) when
all its impacts had flowed through the national economy.

"The initial results of the most recent modeling shows that
Australia's real income will rise by 6.8 percent or A$40 billion
when all the affects have flowed through," he said.

"Growth of this order can be expected to generate around
500,000 new jobs over the course of the liberalization period."

The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum formally agreed in
Osaka last Sunday to draw up individual action plans to eliminate
tariffs in the region, beginning with measures in 1997.

The summit reaffirmed the target dates for APEC free trade set
last year -- 2010 for developed nations and 2020 for developing
countries -- and the principle that no sector such as agriculture
would be excluded.

The prime minister said the APEC framework provided for deeper
integration of Australia into the Asia-Pacific region with all
the economic, political and strategic benefits which flow from
that.

"It is of deep and long-run significance to Australia," he
said.

He described Australian farmers as the "real winners" from the
agreement because they were now able to plan confidently for the
opening up of trade markets under which Australia hoped to be a
major global food supplier.

Opposition Leader John Howard said the APEC goals were
supported by both sides of Australian politics.

But Howard warned that the real test for APEC would be at next
year's summit at Subic Bay in the Philippines when leaders re-
examined the action plans from the Osaka meeting.

"It will be at that point that the bold language (of Osaka)
will be put to the test," Howard said.