RI pins hopes on APEC to create fair trade
Rendi A. Witular, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta
The government expects prominent world leaders to come up with a strong commitment to helping create a fair trading environment for developing countries at the upcoming Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting.
A fair trading condition is needed, partly to eliminate or reduce costs of doing business in the global arena, while helping poor and developing nations to improve economically, Minister of Trade Mari Elka Pangestu said on Friday.
"During the upcoming APEC meeting, Indonesia wants to emphasize the importance of the Pacific Rim leaders to create a fair trading environment, especially for developing nations," reiterated Mari after a ceremony at the Presidential Palace.
She added that Indonesia would also use the meeting to appeal to the leaders to give a much-needed jolt in pushing the upcoming round of negotiations of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in December in Hong Kong.
Next week in Busan, South Korea, Asia-Pacific economic leaders are scheduled to participate in the APEC forum -- an economic forum, started in 1989, to help boost trade among Pacific Rim nations.
APEC groups together 21 economies from the Pacific Rim, covering 2.6 billion people on four continents. It accounts for about 60 percent of the world's gross domestic product (GDP) of more than US$20 billion and 41 percent of the world's total trade.
Observers see the forum as an alternative path to developing the world's economy, apart from the more formal channels in the WTO. It has been noted that trade and investment barriers across the APEC region had fallen from 16.6 percent in 1988 to 6.4 percent in 2004.
Mari said Indonesia would also propose specific issues during the forum, including problems in determining special products and safeguard mechanisms for agriculture under the WTO framework.
She explained that the upcoming APEC meeting would basically focus on three issues; the forum's role to support the upcoming WTO talks, the implementation of the Bogor goals and the discussion over bilateral and regional economic problems.
The Bogor goals are a series of targets drafted during an APEC meeting in Bogor, West Java, in 1994. The goals were made to achieve free and open trade and investment in the Asia-Pacific region: 2010 for industrialized economies and 2020 for developing economies.
"APEC stands on the three legs of economic issues, the first is on liberalization, the second is on facilitation and the third is on economic and technical cooperation. For developing nations, liberalization should be supported by economic cooperation," said Mari.
Meanwhile, business leaders included in the APEC Business Advisory Council, a unit of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce (KADIN) met President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to advise the government on the APEC meeting.
Chairman of the council, John A. Prasetio, said the president would make a presentation on labor, tax, infrastructure and investment affairs before the APEC leaders.
"Aside from making the presentation, the President will also meet several world business leaders during his three-day visit in Busan," said John.