Highlights of the Bangkok Declaration on Partnership for the Future
I am pleased to present to you some highlights of the APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting held over these past two days.
First I shall summarize for you some highlights from the Bangkok Declaration on Partnership for the Future that we agreed on.
All APEC Leaders agreed that, in order to realize the APEC vision set out in 1993 of "achieving stability, security and prosperity for our peoples," it is essential to strengthen our partnership not only to liberalize and facilitate regional trade and investment, but also to protect our peoples and societies against threats to their security, while preparing them to benefit fully from free and open trade.
1. Promoting Trade and Investment Liberalization
On the Doha Development Agenda, we believe that it offers the potential for real gains for all economies, particularly developing economies, in the areas of agricultural reform, improved market access for goods and services, and clarification and improvement of trade disciplines. We agreed to express our strong support for continuing the work done at Cancun to move the Doha Round towards an ambitious and balanced outcome. We believed that flexibility and political will are urgently needed to re-energize the negotiations, building on Chairman Derbez's text of 13 September 2003.
We agreed to work towards the abolition of all forms of agricultural export subsidies, unjustifiable export prohibitions and restrictions, and committed ourselves to work in the negotiating group on rules in accordance with the Doha mandate.
We agreed to advance free trade in a coordinated manner among multilateral, regional and bilateral frameworks so that they are complementary, consistent with WTO principles and contribute to the Bogor Goals.
To enhance APEC's work on the WTO, we reaffirmed our support for the early accession to the WTO by Russia and Vietnam.
We agreed to work with the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) and the business community to continue to implement the Shanghai Accord and Los Cabos directives to facilitate business activity in the APEC region, including the reduction of transaction costs 5% by the year 2006.
We agreed to fight corruption by working in 2004 to develop actions to combat it, and to continue promoting transparency through our agreed transparency standards.
2. Enhancing Human Security
Transnational terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction pose direct and profound challenges to our vision of free, open and prosperous economies. We therefore dedicated APEC to the complementary mission of ensuring the security of our people.
To counter terrorism, we agreed to increase and better coordinate our counter-terrorism activities with such bodies as the Counter Terrorism Action Group (CTAG) of the G-8 and the United Nations Security Council Counter Terrorism Committee. We also saw the need to prevent terrorist attacks against mass transportation, in particular, by confronting the threat posed by terrorists' acquisition and use of Man-Portable Air Defense Systems (MANPADS) against international aviation.
We also recognized the need to establish a regional trade and financial security initiative within the Asian Development Bank, to support projects that enhance port security and combat terrorist finance. The United States has agreed to provide 5.4 million US dollars in cash and kind for this facility.
We agreed to implement the APEC Action Plan on SARS and our Health Security Initiative to help APEC prevent and respond to regional health threats - including naturally occurring infectious disease and bio-terrorism. We also encouraged the Life Sciences Innovation Forum to complete its strategic plan by 2004.
3. Using APEC to Help People and Societies Benefit from Globalization
We believed that sustainable and equitable economic development requires empowering people and strengthening societies for globalization.
We therefore instructed Ministers to coordinate on micro enterprise financing and capacity building initiatives, in collaboration with international financial institutions and other relevant parties.
We instructed Ministers to accelerate progress towards the Brunei Goals on expanding Internet access, improvement of intellectual property rights protection, implementation of the e-APEC Strategy, and upgrading the ability of the workforce to effectively use the Internet, by developing their English-language and computer skills.
We urged further cooperation on development of domestic and regional bond markets, as well as securitization and credit guarantee markets to promote sound and efficient financial systems and fundamentals in our region.
Finally, we instructed Ministers to explore how APEC can be made more efficient and responsive to all stakeholders, particularly the general public. We asked Ministers to report on progress by the time we meet in Chile in 2004.