Senior officials to prepare APEC leadership meeting
JAKARTA (JP): Over 250 officials from the 17 members of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum will meet in Bali this week to hammer out concepts for the implementation of the organization's three main priorities.
"We shall begin to discuss conceptually the topics which are defined as being priorities during Indonesia's chairmanship," said Wisber Loeis, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' director general for economic relations.
Indonesia has stated its desire to highlight human resources development, advancement of small and medium enterprises and private sector participation during its current chairmanship of APEC.
"There has been prior discussion on these topics, but now it will become more intensified," Wisber told reporters here yesterday.
The meetings in Bali will be part of the second APEC Senior Officials Meeting (SOM) to prepare for the upcoming APEC leadership meeting here in November.
Altogether four SOMs are scheduled in the run-up to the summit; the first was held in Jakarta last February and the next is slated for August.
Officials from the various APEC working groups and committees will begin talks on Thursday through the eve of the SOM which will take place from May 18-20 at the Bali International Convention Center.
Among the group meetings preceding the SOM will be the Customs and Procedures group meeting, Standards and Conformance meeting, Tariff Database Technical Experts meeting and Investments group meeting.
On May 15, the members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will hold a separate meeting to formulate a unified position for the APEC SOM.
However, Wisber stressed that whatever the outcome, the ASEAN meeting would not determine an absolute ASEAN stance.
"We participate in APEC not as a group but as individual ASEAN members," he said.
Assistants
Wisber also announced yesterday that the inaugural meeting of Special Assistants to the Leaders will be held on May 17 to coincide with the SOM.
The special assistants are representatives appointed by APEC heads of government assigned to realize the initiatives taken at the leadership meeting on Blake island, Seattle, on Nov. 20, 1993.
Headed by Bintoro Tjokroamidjojo, who in January was appointed coordinator of APEC affairs by President Soeharto, the special assistants meeting will formulate policies implementing the leaders' initiatives which include establishing a Pacific Business Forum, a Technology Transfer Exchange Center, an APEC education program and an investment code.
Elaborating further on the agenda for the second SOM in Bali, Wisber said, "the technical aspects of APEC trade will be intensively worked on."
Wisber further revealed that the second APEC SOM is also expected to endorse the conversion of the ad hoc group on Economic Trends and Issues (ETI) into an Economic Committee.
At present APEC has established two committees -- the Committee on Trade and Investment and the Budget and Administration Committee.
APEC groups Canada, the United States, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, China, Taiwan, Papua New Guinea, Hong Kong, Mexico, South Korea and the six ASEAN member states -- Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Brunei and Indonesia. (mds)