APEC Workshop on Trade and Sustainable Use of Biodiversity

Excellencies,
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

At the outset, permit me to extend to all of you a most cordial welcome to Indonesia and to tell you how much we appreciate your spending valuable time to attend this APEC Workshop on Trade and Sustainable Use of Biodiversity. I should also like to thank the Government of Australia for kindly co-hosting this important Workshop.

The issue of sustainable development is not a new issue in APEC. In 1994, the APEC Environment Ministers had their first meeting in Vancouver, where they launched APEC as a forum for cooperation not only on economic issues but also on environmental issues. That Meeting also initiated the implementation of the APEC Leaders' commitment in Seattle to address environmental issues so that the well-being of our peoples would be safeguarded in the long term. It gave due recognition to the imperative of integrating economic and environmental considerations in the planning and implementation of development at every level.

Furthermore, in 1997, during the APEC Ministerial Meeting on Sustainable Development, the Ministers in charge of the Environment agreed that sustainable development is a basic factor to human health and prosperity. They agreed to transform sustainable development principles into meaningful practices and concrete results. This commitment has been translated into various APEC programmes and activities designed to help member economies address environmental and sustainable development issues.

Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

The World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in 2002, agreed to assume collective responsibility for enhancing and strengthening the interdependent and mutually reinforcing pillars of sustainable development at the local, national, regional and global levels. They also confirmed that the issue of biodiversity is at core of all efforts to achieve sustainable development. Following up on this commitment, Indonesia has taken the initiative of introducing the issue of the sustainable use of biodiversity in APEC.

As an economy with a wealth of biological resources, Indonesia attaches great importance to ensuring that the prosperity of the peoples of our region should not be achieved at the expense of the environment. We cannot simply trade off biodiversity for short-term development. Nor can we achieve lasting prosperity while the degradation of global biodiversity accelerates. The world's wealth of biodiversity should be tapped not only to serve the present needs of this present generation of humankind but also to ensure that the needs of our future generations will be met.

A number of APEC economies are endowed with abundant biological resources but lack of access to biotechnology. Others possess a great capability in technology but have limited biological resources. Still others have both resources and technology. This means that tremendous benefits can be derived from a judicious and sustainable tapping and trading of our biodiversity. Thus, we must not only address the issue of technology transfer and engage in the sharing of best practices, we must also work in concert to maximize the benefits derived from the sustainable use of our biodiversity resources. We in Indonesia believe that, considering how varied are the APEC economies in terms of possession of biodiversity and biotechnology, we can develop a tremendous collective comparative advantage.

The APEC Ministerial Meeting that I attended in Bangkok in October 2003 agreed to continue supporting global efforts to address significant sustainable development issues and stressed the importance of the sustainable use of biodiversity. It also endorsed this Indonesian initiative on trade and sustainable use of biodiversity, which we are implementing through, among other ways, this Workshop that we are co-hosting with Australia. Hence, Indonesia deeply appreciates your support for and participation in the first ever APEC activity that addresses this issue.

Excellencies,
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

The important factors in any effort to promote a fair and sustainable trade of biodiversity are technology transfer, cooperation through capacity building and sharing of access as well as benefits. Hence, it is my hope that this Workshop will generate recommendations on how APEC can foster technology transfer that benefits all, and how APEC can go into capacity building cooperation so that developed as well as developing economies can reap the benefits of biodiversity. I hope this Workshop will also identify ways by which developed and developing economies can cooperate in the industrial use of genetic resources in a way that will give a fair share of the benefits to indigenous communities.

Let me emphasize that in this initiative there are many and various kinds of stakeholders. They include government officials, academics, the private business sector, civil society and various marginalized groups in society. By taking part in this Workshop, you have taken up the worthy cause of these stakeholders.

I therefore look forward to vigorous follow-up action to this Workshop based on your recommendations. I trust that these will revive APEC cooperation on environmental issues, thereby dispelling the image of APEC as too focused on the economic pillar of development without caring as much for sustainability.

In that manner, we will be able to contribute not only to the achievement of prosperity for our peoples during our time, but also to ensuring the survival of our future generations.

It is now my privilege and pleasure to declare this Workshop open.

Thank you.