Bandar Seri Begawan - Economic recovery and ensuring its relevancy will be among some of the many issues that will be tabled and discussed when 21 world leaders and corporate heads that represent more than half of the world's economic output meet in Singapore for the annual Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) Summit.

Speaking to the envoy of the Southeast Asian city-state to the Sultanate, Mr Joseph K H Koh explained, "As far as Singapore is concerned, even while signs of recovery have emerged, the economic outlook still remains uncertain. Therefore, Apec's traditional role of keeping markets open, accelerating regional economic integration and supporting the multilateral trading system will assume greater importance."

However, the High Commissioner emphasised: "But we must also look beyond the present economic crisis and maintain a forward-looking agenda that will respond to the challenges of the post-global recession landscape. Thus, Apec ministers and leaders will discuss how our economies should work together to sustain economic recovery, and advance Apec's core mission of connecting the region so that businesses can better tap on the growing opportunities in the Asia-Pacific."
With regards to the growing movement of including more representation of economically developing stakeholders within the arena of international economic meetings, as recently witnessed during the last G20 meeting in London that called for the bigger organisation to supersede the outdated G8, Mr Koh offered his opinions on whether this trend would be carried over in Singapore.

"It is important that major developing countries like China, India and others have stepped forward to take up responsibility for dealing with global challenges. We welcome this development. Nevertheless, in the coming months and years, the G20 will have to deal with a broader set of issues, which all countries - big and small - have a stake. To be effective, there needs to be wide consultation and transparency in the way these deliberations are conducted and decisions reached. It is important that the G20 process remains inclusive such that the views of all parties are heard."

From his point of view, he went on to add: "In Apec, we believe in the importance of having a consensus-driven structure that engages all the players -big and small. This has proven to be resilient. It reflects a realistic recognition of the disparate political, cultural and economic interests in the region. The strength of this is that it is representative in nature and gives everyone a stake in the region's success. Ideas to modify the existing architecture to one that is less representative are unlikely to gain wide support."

So how will the Apec ministers and leaders be addressing the issue of recovery from the current economic crisis?

"The current economic crisis actually provides us with an opportunity for inclusive growth. We must seize it to restructure our economies so that we can be better prepared for free trade, for globalisation, and for stronger social resilience among our people and businesses to better ride out economic downturns," replied the Singaporean High Commissioner, adding: "Our aim is to get agreement on the broad areas of focus for Apec's Inclusive Growth Agenda, as identified by the senior officials. Member economies will then develop a multiyear work programme in 2010 to foster inclusive growth in the region."

Sustainable growth is another area in which he pointed out deserves more focus. "There have already been earlier discussions on how Apec can meaningfully contribute to the success of the forthcoming UN Conference on climate change in Copenhagen, for example, by reducing barriers to trade and investment in environmental goods and services. Along this line, the ministers, will want to discuss how we can align the Apec ideal of keeping global trade and investment free and open with efforts to mitigate the impact of climate change."

Another point of discussion at the upcoming meeting will be how the group, with its overlapping membership with the G20 could progress these ideas even further. "In view of the balanced growth framework laid down recently by the G20 in Pittsburgh, we will discuss how Apec, with its overlapping membership with the G20, could take these discussions forward, and contribute towards implementing longer term structural reforms to gradually reduce global imbalances. Apec can in particular look into steps to encourage and build capacity for financial market reforms."

But can the different economies really unanimously lend their support for the multilateral trading system? "The ministers will discuss the steps needed to bring about a successful and speedy conclusion of the Doha Round of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) negotiations. We should have a candid discussion on measures that are being taken„that are trade distorting or protectionist, even if they are WTO-consistent," Mr Koh replied.

"Furthermore, the Apec trade ministers will have an informal breakfast meeting with the Director General of WTO, Pascal Lamy on the morning of November 11 - before the Apec Ministerial Meeting proper - to take stock of the latest developments on the Doha Development Agenda."

The 21 members of the Asia Pacific grouping account for more than 40 per cent of the world's population, approximately 54.2 percent of the world's Growth Domestic Product and 43.7 per cent of the world's trade. With economic recovery most on the minds of the state and business leaders, what can we expect in terms of accelerating regional economic integration through Apec?

"The most important contribution Apec can make in preparing for recovery remains our core work on Regional Economic Integration (REI). This will entail three elements."

The first would be by accelerating trade and investment at the border. Among other things, the leaders and ministers are expected to discuss how they can simplify documentations and procedures related to the `Rules of Origin' so as to help companies maximise the potential gains from the multitude of Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) that have sprung up across the region. The leaders will discuss how to take this work further and advance the Apec Services Initiative - the current missing gap in the Apec REI agenda. Senior officials will also be discussing what they can do further in their efforts to explore a possible Free Trade Agreement of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP).

Following on from that would be trying to improve the business environment behind the border. The delegates will be focusing on regulatory reform aimed at making it easier, faster and cheaper to do business in the region. The 21 trade ministers have already identified five priority areas - starting a business, getting credit, trading across borders, enforcing contracts, dealing with permits - to improve the `Ease of Doing Business' in the region. During the Apec Ministerial Meeting, the delegates will consider the targets to achieve reforms in these priority areas, as well as welcome the "champion economies" and capacity building programmes to help achieve these targets. The ministers will also consider key performance indicators for the Investment Facilitation Action Plan.

The third process will be by enhancing connectivity and enabling goods and business to move faster and cheaper across borders. The leaders will discuss the `Supply Chain Connectivity Initiative' whose goal is to identify and resolve the many bottlenecks that businessmen, especially logistics companies, have been complaining about, such as poor transport networks and infrastructure, slow customs clearance, and lack of coordination among government agencies on logistics policies.

But asked whether the Apec member economies would really subscribe to the ideas of the REI and FTAAP, the Singaporean High Commissioner replied: "Today, the real impediments to free trade are no longer high tariff rates, but rather barriers erected elsewhere. That is why Singapore is focused on taking a more holistic and comprehensive approach to regional economic integration, examining issues, at the border', `across the border' and `behind the border'. The Apec economies have been very supportive. They too realise that these initiatives are necessary to sustain the competitiveness of the region, and that we should use this crisis as an opportunity to embark on longer-term reforms.

Mr Koh went on to add, "Apec's strength has always been in sharing of experiences and helping each other build capacity for reform. We are also working together to design reform programmes led by `champion economies' with strengths in each of the priority areas. We look forward to announcing more details on these at the end of the year."-- Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin

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