Plans For APEC 2004 and The Growing Links Between Chile And The Economies Of The Asia-Pacific Region

Dear Ambassador, Dear Ministers

Dear Ambassador, and all of you that work here for the continuity of APEC, let me tell you that I am extremely happy to be able to share with you a few moments in this official visit to Singapore this morning. We wanted to be here this morning just to underline how important it is for us in Chile to be receiving all the other twenty member economies of the APEC community.

Chile believes that the strong partnership is going to be essential if we are going to be able to achieve our Bogor Goals established in 1994. Indeed, this is a year of celebration for Chile. The fact that we can receive all of you down in our different conferences as Ambassador Artaza has just mentioned.

When we decided to have the idea that the mode of this conference should be 'One Community, Our Future', we wanted to underline the cultural, social, political, and different developments that among the different economies exist. Nevertheless, through the Pacific Basin we thought that there was just one community where everybody is committed to some particular goals and therefore through that community, it was possible to build a better future for all of us. And this is the reason then I decided on a number of some other areas said to be taken into account in this year and the years after Bogor.

First, how are we going to make a further commitment to development through trade and investment? Economic integration is crucial for the future prosperity of the APEC economy. How are we going to look forward in order to have a commitment to development through trade, and to what extent in addition to trade, we have to promote investment in each other's countries?

In our case, five APEC member economies have already finalised trade agreements with Chile. It represents for us an important asset because we are transforming Chile in this way into one of the most open economies all over the world. In other words, few countries can claim that within the twenty-one economies, with five of them, we already have these trade agreements.

So the commitment that we have to development, through trade and investment is a real one. The other thing that we would like to address is how are we going to be able to share the benefits of growth through better practices? How are we going to protect our communities from the threat of terrorism which now is crucial if we want to safeguard sustained economic growth and stability? This is the reason why the second STAR Conference on security matters was held in Chile, in Vina del Mar last March and this is why it was so important then to understand that to have better practices, in order to share the benefits of growth, it is essential.

The third area is skills for the coming challenges and for skills for the coming challenges, we point out the area of education. If something has been accomplished in this visit to Singapore, it has been the need to understand better the way that you here in Singapore has been able to produce a tremendous development through growth but in the long run, investment in human resources. And therefore, education and opportunities for everybody, how to discover the new talents, how are we going to provide them with enough skills is going to be essential if we want to have bigger rate of growth in the future and a more equitable society is going to be built if education is affordable for everybody.

This is why now, a Ministerial Educational Conference is taking place down in Chile and where the decision we are taking of how to make English - a working language within the APEC economy - up to what extent the APEC region provides an excellent tool and a much needed platform for integration - our use and knowledge of the language that is going to be essential using better skills for everybody.

The other area has to be with what kind of opportunities can be given among APEC economies in the area of entrepreneurial growth. To what extent we can empower and broaden the opportunities for the small and medium enterprises, the small and medium entrepreneurs; how today in the APEC region, not only through the big transnational firms but also if possible, to generate the space to have on-the-job training for those that would like to have also the ability to accomplish new areas for the private sector to open new avenues.

There are two final areas that we would like to point out during this year. One is that growth and stability is key to integration and the recovery of the world economy today is strengthening the prospects of higher growth in our region. We are optimistic about what is the economic situation in today's world and we would like then to understand that we will have to take the opportunity in the APEC region to finally have a further commitment to sustainable growth.

How are we going to access the management of knowledge in addition to what we already have? There is another Ministerial meeting taking place as all of you know, in the area of Mining, in the area of the Third Tourism Ministerial Meeting, in the area of the Marine Ocean Strategy and that meeting is going to be held in Easter Island.

Chile realises that we are the second Latin American economy that has the responsibility of chairing APEC. In the year 2002, it was Mexico that had that responsibility. In this year we are going to commemorate ten years since we became members of APEC. The year has been extremely important from our own point of view of a country and the year has been extremely important to consolidate APEC as a regional grouping of the major economies in the world that account for more than fifty percent of the world trade.

There are many challenges in addition to those that have been established here but also there are new realities as I said yesterday vis-à-vis what happened in 1994 - in addition to free and open trade, by the year 2010 or 2020 according to Bogor Goals. In the meantime, many countries have decided through bilateral agreements or trilateral agreements like the one that we are trying to accomplish with New Zealand and Singapore, to open up and therefore I think that the time has come so that in this Conference, the Leaders of the member economies can also take into account what is going on with regards to this trade bilateral agreements, to what extent a link can be established - in a voluntary basis of course as is the major aim in the APEC economy - to link the different countries that would like to make a further commitment to further trade taking into account this new realty about the free trade agreements among the APEC member economies. I think that is going to be realistic when we are approaching to the evaluation of the mid-term strategy that is going to be taken in the next APEC meeting in 2005 in Korea.

The idea of how are we going to measure the advances for the free and open economy, what is going to be the yardstick to measure that and therefore I think that one way of doing in addition to the methodological discussion of what it means of a free and open trade and how far or how close we are of that yardstick. What have been the gains or what have been the advances in the meantime - no matter how we are going to define the yardstick, and I think that on the assets about the advances, the new free trade agreement that has been established between the last ten years should be taken into consideration.

In other words, I think that in addition to the regular meetings and the regular agendas, we should try to include two additional points. The first one, in connection with the bilateral arrangements and if it is possible to have a commitment through those arrangements for those countries on a voluntary basis that would like to have linked one economy to each other through these agreements. And the second one - to what extent the APEC economy, carrying peerage, in what way the Doha Development Round is going to take some strength again. After Cancun, to what extent we can put the Doha Development Round again moving in the fast track. And I think that the good opportunity will be seen next June, early June, when the Trade Ministers of the APEC economies are going to have a meeting in Chile in this connection.

I know that the APEC Caucus is working to some extent in Geneva but I think that it would be a good turning point to see if it's possible for the Ministers of Trade in Chile, in June, to discuss the advances of the Doha Development Round and at the same time to see to what extent we can use the bilateral agreements of the different APEC economies in order to see if it is possible to transform them in the link for those countries that would like to go a little bit faster.

I think that is enough for the work that we are planning to do in Chile. Nevertheless I think that all this work that is possible to do is only possible through the day-to-day work that you perform here. You are a rather unusual organisation because I wanted to say that you have two bosses. Your own government that you represent here and at the same time till what extent you think that is going to be in the future - some other boss, that is the Pacific Region - thinking that what that region may represent really a further improvement for the global planet.

And therefore, while I understand that all of you in this Secretariat are members of your own countries and represent the interests of your own economies, nevertheless all of you are in the long run, another endeavour which is to what extent through our own economies, we can have a link together for a better region and therefore for a better world.

So I would like to thank you for your day-to-day work and tell you that I am extremely happy to be able to be here and to have this opportunity to talk with you. Thank you, thank you very much.