[asia-apec 136] APEC Business Recommendations

[Northwest FOE Office]

4 October

Please post.

Thought you might want to know what the Business community's APEC agenda is:

David E. Ortman
NW Office, Friends of the Earth
Seattle, WA

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Seattle Post-Intelligencer
BUSINESS Wednesday, October 2, 1996

Shrontz gives a peek at business proposals for APEC gathering
By KAREN WEST  P-I Reporter

   Boeing Chairman Frank Shrontz yesterday gave a sneak preview
of several key recommendations to leaders of the Pacific Rim to
improve economic development and investment in the region.

   The proposals will be presented later this month to leaders of
the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum and will help set
stage for the November conference in the Philippines.

   Shrontz, one of three Americans to serve on the Asia Pacific
Economic Cooperation Advisory Council, recently returned from
Hong Kong, where the panel came up with ways to enhance finance
and investment in the Pacific Rim region and proposals for long-
term visas for frequent business travelers.

   The group, which serves as the business voice to APEC, also
developed proposals to improve trade between countries and ways
to ease international border restrictions.

   Shrontz outlined the group's recommendations to about 200
Asian and U.S. business leaders during yesterdays Pacific Leaders
Forum at the Bell Harbor International Conference Center.

   The international business council includes three
representatives from each of the APEC economies: the United
States, Canada, Mexico, Chile, China, Taiwan, Australia, New
Zealand, Japan, Indonesia, South Korea, Malaysia, Thailand, the
Philippines, Brunei, Hong Kong, Papua New Guinea, and Singapore.

   APEC is an international organization aimed at promoting
prosperity in the Pacific Rim.

   Shrontz, speaking to a forum organized by the Committee for
Economic Development, said the advisory council's report would be
presented to Philippine President Fidel Ramos Oct.25.

   Among the recommendations:

   *Frequent business travelers should be offered five-to ten-
year business visas that would have specific long-term, multiple-
entry terms for all 18 APEC countries.

   Shrontz said international border restrictions, such as visa
requirements, create "people movement problems" and limit the
flow of goods, services, information and capital in the Asia-
Pacific region.

   Visas are often good for only one entry to a country and can
take several weeks to obtain.

   *APEC nations should adopt a list of priority infrastructure
projects what would qualify for a uniform set of liberalized
investment principles to encourage private foreign investment.

   While APEC has proposed adopting such investment principles 
across the board, applying them on a project-specific basis might
speed the development of some $1.5 trillion in infrastructure in
East Asia over the next seven years, Shrontz said.

   "We believe that the financial markets will reward this
increased security for investors by delivering lower project
finance costs," Shrontz said.

   *Private businesses should contribute in construction and
operation of public projects, including upgrading roads,
airports, rail and telecommunications.
   In 1995, the World Bank estimated that the demand for new
infrastructure spending just in East Asia between 1997 and 2004
could reach as much as $1.5 trillion, Sholtz said.

   *APEC countries could create a free-trade environment without
excess tariffs.

   *A central registry for trademarks and patents should be
created in the APEC economies.  That, Sholtz said, is one way to
ensure the protection of intellectual property rights.

   *Customs procedures should be made simpler and improved
systems encouraged, such as electronic processing of goods. 
Shrontz said simpler customs procedures is especially important
in light of the rapid growth of cross-border trade in the Pacific
Rim region.

   *Promote ways to improve the well being of the 18 economies.
"We need to reach out to the broader business community and the
public at large," Sholtz said.