Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation

Bandar Seri Begawan - Singapore is in the thick of preparations, including two-day rehearsals that ended yesterday, to play host to 10,000 delegates, media and businessmen at the Apec 2009 Singapore on November 8-15, states the Apec Organising Committee on its official website.

The rehearsals, which involved road closures as part of security arrangements, have been conducted for the organising team to anticipate any operational issues and to ensure that the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) Summit events are carried out smoothly. The weekend rehearsals involved either lane closures or temporary road closures for short periods of time.

To minimise any potential traffic congestion during the Summit week, a dedicated Apec Lane will be set up on primary thoroughfares to facilitate the movement of APEC vehicles.

The 21 Apec Leaders are encouraged to focus on how to overcome the effects of the global economic downturn and to promote bilateral ties in the region, said an analyst yesterday.

"The cooperation among them should be more focused on how to build regional capacity (to prevent) similar crises that (may occur) in the future," Bantarto Bandoro, a researcher at the Indonesian Institute for Strategies Studies, said by phone from Jakarta.

Finding ways of coping better with climate change, energy security as well as food security will be on the agenda as the leaders meet in Singapore, he said.

"Climate change is closely related to economic development. Apec economies must realise that the effect of the global crisis could be worse if they fail to tackle the climate change problems," he said, adding that both energy security and food security are also the two issues that need Apec's attention, aside from economic cooperation.

Any decision which will be made during the Apec Leaders Summit this year must be action-oriented (and) resolve current problems."

Apec groups Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Chinese Taipei, Thailand, the United States and Vietnam.

Among world's leaders who will be present at the Summit is US President Barrack Obama who is scheduled to attend the sessions in Singapore on November 13-15, as part of his international swing to Asia.

While in Singapore, Obama is also scheduled to hold bilateral meetings with leaders from Singapore and other countries, and his first meeting with leaders of the 10 members of the Asean. -- Courtesy of The Brunei Times

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