Challenges And Opportunities in Asia-Pacific

Let me begin by thanking the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Trade and Industry of Indonesia for organizing this Seminar.

I must put in record my gratitude to Professor Himendra and his university for putting up efforts that enabled us getting together here today talking about APEC, its progress and where it is today.

I would like to mention a Chinese proverb, which some of you have probably heard before. Give man a fish and he will live tomorrow. Teach him how to fish, and he will live for many days. Unless of cause, fish are fast depleting but I am sure he can find a small pond somewhere. The moral of the story will unfold as we go through today's discussion.

I had an opportunity to attend APEC meetings in this beautiful country in 1994. Our APEC Leaders then announced their goals to further the vision for a community through economic growth, strengthened cooperation and improved standards of living. Since then, three important events have influenced developments in Asia-Pacific, specifically APEC.

First was the Asian Financial Crisis. We are now thankful that economic recovery in the region is pretty strong. Yet APEC leaders recognized that there is no room for complacency. Strengthening markets and reforms continued to be in APEC's agenda. I will offer more details of these later.

Second, the phenomenal advances in information and communication technology change the way business is done and the way we live and work. Globalisation exposes international organizations as well as governments' lack of appropriate policies and institutional frameworks to address these new challenges. The ongoing globalisation process forces us to develop new national and global-wide practices and policies in order to encourage and facilitate the free flow of information, goods, services, investments and capitals.

APEC's ambition of promoting economic growth and improving people's living standards remains the backbone of APEC's cooperation. That vision is even more important now that technology and Internet bring news, information, knowledge and innovation faster than we ever thought before and as we recover from the nasty shocks of ASIAN Financial crisis.

In Auckland, APEC Leaders stressed that open and competitive markets are key drivers of economic efficiency and consumer welfare. They are committed to strengthen markets by providing greater transparency in corporate and public sector governance, enhancing the role of competition to improve efficiency and broaden participation by enterprises, improving quality regulation and capacity of regulators, reducing compliance costs and facilitating business growth, and building favourable regional and international environment for free and fair competition.

In the face of all the new developments, APEC's cooperation on strengthening markets has been extended to e-commerce and technology cooperation, entrepreneurship and SME development, education and life-long learning and social safety nets. Ministers will receive reports on the implementation of the Road Map Initiatives in November including cooperation on strengthening of legal infrastructures for business.

Turning to the WTO, APEC Leaders remain committed to supporting the WTO and the launching of a new round of trade negotiations. APEC monitors the development of negotiations within the WTO. Recently in Darwin, APEC Ministers for Trade endorsed the Japanese proposal that was aimed to develop confidence-building measures for the WTO and help developing member economies implement WTO agreements.

In the area of economic and technical cooperation, APEC pursues cooperation that help member economies to attain sustainable growth and equitable development through policy dialogue, as well as joint activities to broaden and deepen intra-regional cooperation in areas of mutual interest to the APEC member economies.

Those joint activities include compilation and sharing of data and information, surveys, training, seminars, research and technical demonstrations that would improve economic and social well-being and facilitate growth of trade and investment in the region. Such activities are being conducted in various areas, including WTO-related areas like services, standards, intellectual property, customs valuation, and rules of origin, investment, competition policy, and government procurement and dispute settlement.

APEC success is a challenge in itself. It now has about 250 project activities proliferating across the board. It has 10 Working Groups and may have a couple of new ones by end of the year. At the same time, APEC has been reviewing its already extensive process and how to streamline its organization. The extensive numbers of meetings and activities across the board call for more coordination and coherence in APEC activities. As Brunei inherited one of the largest build-in agenda from last year's leaders' meeting, Brunei wants to see this year as year for implementation. The electronic Economic and Technical Cooperation Clearing-House, which will be launched in November is a powerful tool that enables users to monitor project implementation and has electronic notice-board capability. We believe this is very useful for planners and academics, who are interested in APEC activities.

APEC's success invites curiosity and applicants. The current 10-year moratorium on membership will ends in 2007 and this meantime allows APEC to consolidate its process. APEC's policy on transparency and admission of guests at working group levels addresses concern that APEC is an exclusive club.

Going into the 21 st Century, economies of the Asia-Pacific region are facing a new and demanding environment, which will be largely influenced by three inter-related characteristics:

Key factors which underlying this new environment provide clear signal - the key fruits of future economic success will depend very much on the capacity of people to acquire and use knowledge and on their ability to cope with change.

The new economy underscores the importance of knowledge as a key driver of future economic growth. APEC Education Ministers who met in Singapore last May agreed that high quality education services should be widely available and widely used if APEC members want to embrace knowledge-based economy. Furthermore, APEC identifies that advanced communications networks and policy/regulatory frameworks that encourage competition, innovation and entrepreneurship are important.

Brunei Darussalam, as host, has placed high priority on Human Resources Development along with Information and Communication Technology and Small and Medium Enterprises as strand running through the APEC 2000 theme and to address these agenda with a real sense of purpose and in a way that will bring in the business sector and key institutions.

While the governments' roles are to provide policy frameworks and structural policy measures that include competition and deregulation policies, trade and investment liberalization, education and basic research, infrastructure, corporate laws, intellectual property rights, taxation and consumer protection, the new economy is very much driven by the private sector.

Key features that set APEC apart from other international organizations are its commitment to facilitating business and regularly bringing the business/private sector into a wide range of APEC activities. Business expertise and resources can help APEC achieve its objectives more so in this new economy. Business already participates in many of APEC's working groups and helps shape the policy dialogue in partnership with member economy officials. APEC new web-portal for business is already getting wider attention and APEC's publication - getting results for business has been made be available on-line. APEC electronic-Individual Action Plan will be launched in November and its full version is due for completion by 2001. All these are useful for business.

More than ninety percent of APEC entrepreneurs are made up of small and medium enterprises. They contribute no less than sixty percent of each member's GNP and provide more than eighty percent employment. APEC is committed to facilitate growth of its SMEs. APEC SME Ministers concurred that the long-term strategy for enhancing the HRD of SMEs is to inculcate the culture of entrepreneurship and business skills among the young populations. They agreed to consider opening up their domestic training programs to participants from other APEC member economies on voluntary basis and to include a list of trainers that are available for conducting training across the APEC region. APEC is now encouraging SMEs to take up IT challenge in the face of globalisation, recognizing the Internet?s potential to help SMEs offer their products and services cost effectively and globally.

APEC has demonstrated global leadership through E-Commerce Readiness Initiative, APEC was the first multilateral forum to develop a comprehensive Electronic Commerce Readiness Guide. This Guide has been a tool to examine how economies can develop economic growth strategies for global digital economy. The Initiative was endorsed and supported by APEC key stakeholders and APEC Trade Ministers in Darwin last June called on all economies to participate. At the Okinawa Summit, the G-8 announced a readiness approach for developing countries that builds on APEC's works.

Let me turn to this year's agenda and priority. In choosing the theme, Brunei Darussalam considers the following factors. The theme is chosen after giving a high priority on continuity, thus allowing APEC to build on previous works. It enables APEC to become innovative and forward looking. Finally, APEC should respond to calls for more coordination and coherence in APEC activities.

Building stronger foundation is one of the sub-themes of APEC 2000. Opportunities brought about by the technology innovation could not be reaped if APEC members do not have access to the technology and its human capacity unmatched the developments. Brunei has an opportunity to make a difference.

As Chair, Brunei wants APEC to facilitate all segments of society having access to information technology and skills. This year's work on human resource development is aimed at developing a clearer operational medium-term plan, which among other things is intended to expand opportunities for all to become participants in and benefit from the new economy. By helping to strengthen the institutional capacity of its developing member economies and by promoting long-term sustainable economic growth, APEC is making valuable contribution by creating jobs and raising the living standards of the people of the region.

I think it would be fair if I do not mention the role of women in APEC process. This year Brunei hosted Women Business Leaders Network Meeting that ended with some concrete recommendations to the Ministers of Small and Medium Enterprises. China has agreed to host similar meeting next year. Women have important roles especially in the development of SMEs. This year too APEC youths have a chance to display their arts exhibitions to our Leaders and would have a chance to interact with their leaders. All these mean to get them recognized and involve in APEC process.

The last development that influences APEC activities, and why we are here, is the outcomes of the Seattle WTO Ministerial Meeting. The demonstration in Seattle indicates that International Economic Organizations including WTO and APEC must strengthen its outreach programmes, communicating the positive impact of globalisation and trade and investment liberalization. As a first step, APEC Secretariat is revamping its web site and you will see a new, more intuitive and highly organised web site. More proactive outreach programs have been proposed for consideration and if approved this will enhance our efforts in communicating what APEC's benefits are for its community.

Let me conclude by saying that when all is said and done, APEC is all about cooperation on adopt broad policy objectives, best practices and sharing information and to ensure progress on commitments through setting examples and peer pressure. APEC is all about encouraging member economies to adopt sound policies that encourage sustained economic growth and prosperity. I would say that APEC is providing members the knowledge how to fish better, what techniques to use and best practices that are available to learn from.

Thank you for listening.