[asia-apec 534] APEC 99 - CEOs Summit

[Gatt Watchdog]

Top Business Summit To Tap into APEC - Yoke Har Lee, NZ Herald,
16/7/98

A group of New Zealand business people is seizing the opportunity
for the country to play host to a chief executives' summit
alongside next year's Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation's (Apec)
leaders meeting.

Deemed a once-in-a-lifetime event for New Zealand, next year's
Apec will be significant as it will be held post-Asian crisis,
against the backdrop of regional economies coming to terms with
the dynamics shaping global business.

A working party has been set up to host the CEOs' summit.  It is
chaired by Wilson and Horton's chief executive, John Maasland.
Others in the working committee are representatives from Air New
Zealand, law firm Bell Gully Buddle Weir, the Wellington Chamber
of Commerce, the American Chambers of Commerce and International
Capital Corporation. Trade New Zealand, the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs and Trade and the Ministry of Commerce have been invited
to participate.

"Previous chief executives' summits have assisted pickups in trade
and investment flows back to the host economy," Mr Maasland said.
Given the current economic challenges affecting the Asia Pacific
region, the proposal to have the summit is even more relevant and
pressing, he said.

"If we miss this now, and we leave it entirely to a limited few -
to the leaders and politicians, and indeed the bureaucratic
sector, we are going to lose out on a tremendous opportunity."

"The CEOs' summit will allow the New Zealand business community
to, in a subtle way, sell itself to the world," Lex Henry, Bell
Gully's representative on the working party told the Business
Herald.

New Zealand hopes to set itself apart from other previous CEOs'
summits by not focusing on numbers or having a jamboree of CEOs,
but to engage the wider business community whose lives would be
affected by Apec leaders' decisions to free up regional trade.

Although the theme for the CEOs' summit would be determined by the
outcome of this year's Kuala Lumpur Apec meeting, subjects close
to New Zealand's heart would be in the primary products sectors,
electronics and telecommunications, among others.

Within Apec, there is a business arm called the Apec Business
Advisory Council (Abac).  Mr Maasland said the CEO's summit would
dovetail nicely with what Abac hopes to achieve.

Mr Henry dismissed suggestions that the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs was lukewarm towards New Zealand hosting a CEOs' summit.