Senior officials to prepare APEC leadership meeting

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)