[asia-apec 219] ABF: The Business Event of the Year

[wbello by way of daga <daga at hk.super.net>]

ABF: The Business Event of the Year

The APEC Business Forum, conceived only for the coming APEC Summit in
Subic, proceeds fron the general interest of Philippine President
Ramos to boost business involvement in APEC.  ABF will be a major two-day
business gathering prior to the Leaders' Meeting in Subic.  The idea
is to broaden the participation of the private sector already achieved
through the creation of ABAC. The target for ABF is to widen the
participation to 25 Chief Executive Officers (heads of corporations)
per economy.

President Ramos designated Romulo to organize the ABF.  An organizing
committee composed mainly of Philippine business people supports
Romulo in his tasks.  In order to avoid any possible complication in
the composition of the invitation list, ABF will rely on the "contact
person" selected for each economy.  Only those included in the list
drawn up by the ABF shall be accepted as official business
representatives.

     The APEC Foundation of the Philippines: Bankrolling the ABF

The APEC Foundation of the Philippines is the main organizer of ABF,
and is also headed by Romulo.  It is the organization that actually
brings together the major business players and business organizations
of the Philippines.

No less than President Ramos spearheaded the collection of funds for
ABF, principally through personal interaction with business leaders.
A similar process was followed before by the US authorities prior to
the Seattle Summit.  They were able at that time to generate surplus
revenue that they put into a foundation called the National Center for
APEC.  That Center exists to this day to promote APEC among the
business sector and right now functions as secretariat for ABAC/USA.
The same is envisioned to happen in the Philippines with the APEC
Foundation.

The Philippine business sector has shown keen interest in supporting
APEC related activities, the ABF included.  Its financial pledges have
reached quite a remarkable amount of P179 million, equivalent to
almost half of the original government budget of P387 million for the
hosting activities of the summit.

However, it is not yet clear how private finance actually intertwines
with the government budget.  For instance, President Ramos recently
stated that the government was not getting a single centavo from the
contributions.  The contributions, he said, go to the private sector
and the foundation.

But APEC Foundation vice president for research Dr. Emmanuel Lallana
has a different version.  In an informal interview, Lallana affirmed
that "the APEC Foundation not only does not receive any financial
assistance from the government, but is itself contributing to the expenses
made by the government for organizing its APEC activities."

This version is shared by Julius Parrenas, executive secretary of ABAC.
According to him, the total amount of funds contributed "will be used for ABF,
for other APEC related activities and also for the government expenses for the
hosting activities" such as those that will be incurred by the
National Organizing Committee for APEC headed by General Lisandro
Abadia.

The uncertainty is confounded by the absolute lack of transparency
about the companies actively involved in sustaining the APEC
Foundation.  Such information is considered strictly confidential.
There is also hardly any sure information about participation in the
funding activities by foreign firms.  However, according to Lallana,
about "95% of the funds that have been raised by the APEC Foundation
come from domestic firms."

One example of a supporting foreign company is IBM Philippines.  Among
domestic contributors, on the other hand, are PLDT, San Miguel Corp.,
PHINMA, Far East Bank, Ayala Corp., the Tan Yu Group, and Jose
Alvarez.


Tax Free Contributions for the APEC Foundation of the Philippines

     Firms                              Pledged Funds
_____________________________________________________________
Filipino-Chinese Taipans                 P 50 million


Makati Business Club +
Management Association of
the Phils + Financial Executives         P 40 million


Bankers Association of the
 Philippines +
Philippine Stock Exchange                 P 30 million


Filipino-Chinese Chamber of
Commerce and Industry                     P 15 million

PCCI + Federation of the
Philippine Industries +
Employers Confederation of the
Philippines + Philexport                  P 10 million

San Miguel Corporation                    P 10 million

PLDT                                      P 10 million

Lopez                                     P 6 million

William Gatchalian                        P 5 million
                                   -----------------------

Total                                     P 176 million