Presentation by
Ambassador Serbini Ali
Executive Director of APEC Secretariat
At
The Diplomatic Institute of Chile,
May 16th 2000
Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation:
Past and Present Challenges
Introduction
It is my pleasure to be here at Diplomatic Academy
of Chile, one of the oldest diplomatic institutes in the region.
I have been informed that this fine Institute has hosted many
diplomats from Asia-Pacific. Today, I am honoured to address the
group of people whose interests are foreign affairs issues and,
of course, the Asia-Pacific.
As Chile will be hosting APEC Meetings in four’s
time, confirming the importance it attaches to Asia-Pacific region
and to APEC, I think it is befitting for me to share with you
where APEC is today, its future and challenges lie ahead of us.
Looking back to the seventies and eighties, in terms
of economic growth, the decades, no doubt, belong to Asia. The
world saw a region of unprecedented dynamism and astounding growth
associated with economic inter-dependence. With the eminent end
of the Cold War, many Asian leaders, political analysts and academia
felt that the US should not be allowed to lose its interest to
the region and therefore should be kept engaged. Europe, they
argued, would be more pre-occupied with its own backyard affairs
– The European Union. In addition to these factors, there was
growing intergovernmental interest for a regional organization
to further promote economic cooperation. What might be the determinant
factor for the formation of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation
in 1989 was the proposal by Prime Ministers Robert Hawke. Thus
APEC was borne in Canberra.
The Vision
The turning point for APEC was the first Informal
Leaders Meeting way back in Seattle in 1993. The Leaders proclaimed
their vision for an Asia-Pacific community built through economic
growth and equitable development, and through trade and economic
cooperation. A community that is to be based on the spirit of
openness and partnership, co-operative efforts to solve the challenges
of change, free exchange of goods, services and investment, higher
living and educational standards and sustainable growth for all
the economies in the region.
Since then, APEC has grown in substance and purpose
- from mere exchanges of economic issues of common concern to
commitment to the multilateral trading system and its further
development through consensus building. The Leaders Meeting in
Bogor, Indonesia in 1994 was APEC’s second key milestone. The
challenge was to translate that vision into goals - goals to strengthen
the open multilateral trading system, enhance trade and liberalization
in the Asia-Pacific and intensify development cooperation in the
region. But the real news was the "Bogor Declaration,"
in which the Leaders agreed to establish free and open trade and
investment in the APEC region by 2010 for developed economies
and by 2020 for developing economies.
The third and final milestone took two Leaders’
meetings to complete. In Osaka (1995) and a year later in Manila
(1996), the Leaders added flesh to Bogor’s bare bones. They agreed
to a three-pillar action agenda: a mix of individual and collective
steps in liberalization, facilitation, and economic-technical
cooperation designed to meet the 2010/2020 goals. This "Osaka
Action Agenda" and "Manila Action Plan" helped
crystallise APEC’s work agenda so APEC could map out a path to
free and open trade and investment in the Asia Pacific region
by 2020.
The agreements reached in Bogor, Osaka, and Manila
still serve as the beacons for APEC’s work. And those three milestones
have pushed APEC process far beyond the original goals of the
founders of APEC, thus fostering a process of economic cooperation
with far-reaching potential.
Since those early days, APEC was already concerned
with issues that matter to its community. To make itself relevant
to business, APEC set yet another vital and historical decision
by announcing, in Manila, that APEC meant business. To help realize
this important decision, a group of prominent business representatives,
APEC Advisory Business Council or ABAC, was formed to advise Leaders
and Ministers and to provide insights and counsel for APEC activities.
Leaders have, till today, continued to receive an annual year-end
reports that are always cutting-edge, thought provoking, and very
challenging for APEC officials. As much as anything, it is this
APEC’s very close and strong ties to business, at all levels,
which sets it apart from other international and regional organizations.
Outcomes of Seattle WTO Ministerial Meeting
While the outcomes of the Seattle WTO Ministerial
Meeting did little to help what APEC has been trying to achieve,
and while many factors have been attributed to the failure to
launch a new round, one dimension stands out and that is WTO and
APEC are challenged to communicate the impact of globalisation
as well as the positive effects of liberalisation.
There remains no doubt that APEC remains committed
to trade and investment liberalisation and will continue to support
and contribute to the Multilateral Trading System. Indeed, APEC
Trade Ministers Meeting in June (Darwin, Australia) and The Leaders
Meeting in November (Brunei) will provide opportunities to build
political support for the WTO.
We all know that trade and investment liberalisation
is good. We all know that those economies practising open trading
systems fare better than the others that do not. Indeed, a recent
study of 80 economies by two World Bank economists demonstrates
conclusively that economic growth benefits the poor in the same
proportion as it benefits the population as a whole. In effect,
then, the economic growth brought by through globalization raises
all boats.
However, the lessons of Seattle suggest that globalisation,
or misperceptions about it, can divide people. It can be seen
as marginalizing countries and people. While liberalisation is
not necessarily bad, many of those on the streets of Seattle thought
otherwise.
APEC faces yet another challenge that it should,
first and foremost, benefit its people. This brings me to this
year’s agenda. The main thrust of this year’s APEC theme - delivering
to the community - which:
Embody the importance of developing more open markets
as well as investing in the people and businesses which operate
in those markets;
Catalyse the advancement of technology and bring
APEC closer to the new opportunities brought by technology; and
Show that, while much of APEC’s work is investing
in the future, APEC creates a valuable selection of ‘products’,
which are of relevance to the wider community in their daily lives.
To be more specific, this year’s priorities build
upon the robust outcomes of Leader’s Meetings in Auckland last
year and include:
Preserving and strengthening markets and continuing
reforms;
Continuing to advance APEC’s main agenda- Trade & Investment
Liberalisation and Facilitation.
Developing human resources with particular emphasis on capacity-building
Focusing on and supporting SMEs, the backbone of many of the APEC
economies; and
Strengthening work in the areas of information and communication
technology
Strengthening Markets and Facilitating Business
Amid growing signs of economic recovery throughout
the region, APEC Leaders and Finance Ministers continue to explore
ways to accelerate the recovery process and meet longer-term challenges.
The cooperative growth strategy the Finance Ministers have adopted
has yielded in stabilizing financial markets and improving the
economic outlook. They however stressed the need for continued
financial and corporate restructuring in the crisis-affected economies.
Under the umbrella of strengthening markets, APEC
will strengthen markets by providing greater transparency and
predictability in both the corporate and public sector governance,
by enhancing the role of competition to improve efficiency and
broaden participation by enterprises and by improving the quality
of regulation together with the capacity of regulators to design
and implement policies for sustainable growth. Also receiving
APEC focus and strong attention is works that promote legal infrastructure
and SME, new business development, and assist members that wish
to implement APEC’s menu of options for investment liberalisation.
The APEC business sector reminds us regularly that
APEC trade facilitation exercises are as important as trade and
investment liberalization. Trade facilitation, the second of the
3 pillars of Osaka Action Agenda, contributes substantially to
efforts to strengthen markets and enhance market access. Most
notable of facilitation activities is in the area of Custom and
Standard Harmonization. The committee entrusted with implementing
these initiatives is also vigorously working on Paperless Trading,
which would be implemented by 2005.
These actions have already resulted in significant
cost savings for exporters and importers. It should come as no
surprise that business strongly welcomes these efforts and the
benefits and cost savings they will bring to doing business in
the APEC region. Officials are now working on a set of non-binding
principles of Trade Facilitation together with implementation
plan that would assist policy makers in formulating and implementing
trade and investment measures that are pro-business.
Making APEC Matters More
To address concern on impact of globalization and
benefits of trade liberalization, APEC is enhancing its outreach
activities to its own community and has proposed to come up with
one stop information channel. As a first step, APEC Secretariat
is redesigning its website to ease access to wide-ranging information
already available on the website. There will be a new and improved
window in the web site to facilitate information for business
and a publication on APEC’s achievements.
To fulfil Leaders and Ministers’ instruction for
a more user-friendly and informative Individual Action Plan, APEC
has made good progress on this project and will finalise it by
October this year. In addition, Senior Officials are also looking
at ways to enhance business participation in APEC process. We
are encouraged to have this year one member economy voluntarily
opened its IAP peer review to members of ABAC.
Very briefly, on the SME one of the key APEC priorities
this year and important engine of growth for APEC economy, a Ministerial
Meeting to be held this June in Brunei, will focus mainly on Strengthening
Markets and Entrepreneurs. Four of the specific topics that will
be addressed are:
Human Resources development
Information and Communication Technology
Financing SMEs, and
Strategic Alliances between SMEs and Large Firms.
New Opportunities
One of the sub-themes of this year’s APEC Meeting
addresses the issue on new opportunities taking into account the
vital importance for knowledge-based economies and the potential,
for business, of information and telecommunication technology.
The E-Trade Fair and the E-Commerce workshop held in conjunction
with the SME Ministerial will help SMEs grasp how to harness the
huge potential of these sectors and the revolutionary impact they
have on doing business, affecting everything from production and
sales to servicing and advertizing. In a real sense, it is the
Internet and the new technologies, which can help SMEs, reach
a much broader market, leapfrogging the confines of local consumer
markets.
The Blueprint for Action on Electronic Commerce
sets out the broad themes for cooperation on electronic commerce
within APEC and specific activities to be carried out on an APEC-wide
basis. Leaders and Ministers, last year, reiterated the importance
of continuing work on e-commerce in cooperation with the private
sector and Ministers have directed officials to develop directive
data and indicators of e-commerce uptake in APEC economies, initiate
work on consumer protection, and develop an APEC-wide plan to
support the use of e-commerce by SMEs.
APEC means more to its community
To provide greater coherence and relevance to the
community, it is important that APEC matters more to the community.
I believe strongly that it already matters to the community—our
challenge is to publicize why that is so in a way, which those
living in our economies can best, understand.
APEC is also concerned with a very new but nonetheless
real phenomenon – the digital divide. As the world economy moves
further toward this post-modern age of advanced technology, there
is a fear that some will be left behind. It would be sadly ironic
if a creation designed to bring the world closer together, the
Internet, instead ends up leaving some even further behind. The
challenge for APEC in its economic and technical cooperation and
capacity building work will be to realize this potential in such
a way that everyone benefits.
Efforts to ensure APEC is addressing issues of community’s
concern are not confined to the annual Joint Ministerial Meeting.
Other ministerial meetings such as the Fourth Energy Ministerial
and Education Ministerial concluded a while ago have addressed
issues that would benefits the people and the environment they
live in. The Telecommunication, Tourism and Trade Ministers Meetings
too will be good opportunities for Ministers to underscore these
concerns. All the outcomes of these Ministerial Meetings would
collectively add up to as deliverables of our Leaders when they
meet later in November in Brunei.
Youth participations are not forgotten. There are
many activities being planned throughout this year. APEC Science
Festival will bring young scientists from APEC region to Singapore
in June for education exchanges and interaction. Brunei is hosting
Youth Arts Exhibition coinciding the Leaders and Ministers Meeting.
Chile’s participation is very much welcomed. Similarly, Korea
will be hosting APEC Youth Skills Camp in Ulsan in September.
Thailand is organising APEC Youth Networking in July.
I want to conclude by saying that the future of
APEC is very good. The confidence shown by future hosts including
Chile in 2004, the opportunities it has provided our leaders/ministers
to interact and know each other, discuss issues of bilateral and
regional concern aside APEC main agenda makes APEC matters more.
Thank you.
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