[asia-apec 447] Selected Information on ABAC (1of2)

[PAN Asia Pacific]

Information from the APEC BUSINESS ADVISORY COUNCIL (ABAC)
1.  Newsletter (May 18)
2. Report of the ABAC Meeting in Mexico City
(February 27 - March 1, 1998 )
3. List of ABAC Members

News from the APEC Business Advisory Council
Vol. 1 - May 18, 1998

ABAC, the private sector arm of the Asia-Pacific Economic
Cooperation for um, was established by APEC Leaders in 1995 to advise
them and Ministers on issues affecting business in the Asia-Pacific
region. ABAC comprises u p to three senior business people from each
of APEC's 18 member economies. The current chair is Tan Sri Dato'
Tajudin Ramli, Executive Chairman of Malaysian Airline System. This
is the inaugural edition of the ABAC Elec tronic Newsletter, which
reports on recent ABAC activities and will updat ed quarterly.
Comments are welcome and should be directed to the contact given
above.

RECENT ADVOCACY

ABAC has called for full participation by APEC economies in the
voluntary program to liberalize trade in 15 sectors ahead of the
2010/2020 Bogor deadline. In a March 31 letter to APEC Trade
Ministers, Tan Sri Tajudin said ABAC wants to see an inclusive,
comprehensive and credible program of liberalization in the 15
industrial and service sectors. Ministers launched the initiative at
their November 1997 meeting in Vancouver.

In a follow-up move, an ABAC representative reiterated ABAC views on
the  early voluntary sectoral liberalization (EVSL) initiative to a
special meeting of APEC's Committee on Trade and Investment, April
20 in Kuala Lump ur, called to work out the detailed terms of
liberalization.

ABAC has also forwarded early advice to Trade Ministers on ways to
streng then members' 1998 individual action plans due by the Kuala
Lumpur APEC M inisterial in November. In another letter to
ministers, the Chair urged, as steps to alleviate the regional
financial crisis, that financial services be added to the sectors
for early liberalization and that APEC economies take action to
implement the 1994 Non-Binding Investment Principles. ABAC also
urged that action plans incorporate economies' EVSL commitments 
and be made more transparent and accessible to business. 

Financial Crisis Task Force Chair Dr. Jeffrey Koo (Chinese Taipei)
and Executive Director Dr. Shafiq Sit Abdullah (Malaysia) will
present addition al ABAC proposals for responding to the regional
financial instability to APEC Finance Ministers at their meeting May
23-24 in Canada.

ABAC members will seek political support for their trade-related
recommen dations when they brief APEC Trade Ministers at their
meeting June 22-23  in Kuching, Malaysia. The top item on
ministers' agenda is to finalize agreement on the terms of early
liberalization in nine of the 15 agreed sectors.

ABAC MEETING IN SYDNEY

At their second meeting of 1998, held May 1-3 in Sydney, Australia,
Counc il members agreed on additional advocacy steps to be taken in
the coming weeks, including plans for seven more letters to APEC
Finance and Trade Ministers.  Members also met with Australian Prime
Minister John Howard and Deputy Prime Minister and Trade Minister
Tim Fischer. Among key decision s from the meeting, ABAC:
-Finalized proposals, to be presented to Finance Ministers, for
restoring private confidence in economies affected by the financial
crisis and for channeling working capital to regional SMEs, which
have been hardest hit by it;
-Planned additional steps to urge Trade Ministers to support strong
secto ral liberalization packages;
-Finalized a report for Trade Ministers with suggestions for
improving their economies' 1998 individual action plans and making
them more useful to business;
-Set up a Food Task Force to develop the Open Food System proposal,
which addresses the need for liberalization along with parallel
action in rural development and dissemination of food- related
technologies;
-Made progress on plans to establish a Partnership for Equitable
Growth ( PEG), a new business-led mechanism to enhance
public-private collaboration in APEC's economic and technical
cooperation ("ecotech") activities; and
-Developed preliminary recommendations on electronic commerce (see
below) .

Members also exchanged views with a larger group of Australian
business people May 1 at an APEC Business Forum organized by the
Australian ABAC me mbers and attended by DPM Fischer.

ABAC ROUNDTABLE ON ELECTRONIC COMMERCE

A key ABAC initiative for 1998 involves organizing business views
and wor king with APEC governments on policy issues related to
electronic commerce. As an initial step, ABAC held a Roundtable on
E-Commerce April 28 in Hong Kong, China. The conference attracted
150 participants from both business and APEC member governments.
They focused on what business and governments want out of
e-commerce, regulatory issues, and future developments . See
Roundtable presentations at http://www.ABACecomm.org.

Based on the results of the Roundtable, ABAC has developed
preliminary re commendations on e-commerce that it plans to forward
to APEC Finance and Trade Ministers:
-The private sector should lead in development of e- commerce;
-E-commerce offers great opportunities for SMEs provided there is
adequat e training for them; 
-New laws should not be introduced if existing ones can apply;
-Laws and regulations should not commit business to a specific
technology or standards;
-Policies and regulations should be compatible with existing
multilateral agreements, such as in the WTO or ITU;
-Governments should lead by example by maximizing use of e- commerce
in,  for example, government procurement; 
-Each government should designate one agency as its lead for
e-commerce i ssues and centralize all activities under it;
-Public-private partnerships will be vital to realizing the
potential ben efits of e-commerce;
-A mechanism should be established to ensure consumer protection
across borders; and 
-Private and public sectors must make efforts to build confidence in
electronic payment systems.

APEC BUSINESS SUMMIT 

Plans are taking shape for the APEC Business Summit to be held in
Kuala Lumpur 14-16 November, just before the meeting of APEC
Economic Leaders. The high-level conference has the theme of "a new
APEC for the new millennium" and is organized by ABAC, the Pacific
Basin Economic Council Malaysia Committee, Malaysia's National
Committee for Pacific Economic Cooperati on, and the Asian Strategy
and Leadership Institute (ASLI). The Summit aims to enhance business
cooperation among APEC members, promote strategic alliances, and
identify new business, investment and technology transfer
opportunities. Malaysian Prime Minister Dato' Seri Dr.  Mahathir
Mohamad w ill deliver the keynote address to the Summit, and several
other APEC Eco nomic Leaders have also been invited to speak.

For general information, including about attendance, please contact
ABAC Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur (tel: 603-647-1234; fax:
603-637-1120). For info rmation about sponsorship, please contact
Rohana Tan Sri Mahmood at PBEC Malaysia (tel: 603-263-6086; fax:
603-263-6087; e-mail: mrohana at pc.jaring .my) or Ms. Jean Wong at
ASLI (tel:603-731-7775; fax: 603-731-4758; e-mail:
jean at asli.po.my)


APEC BUSINESS ADVISORY COUNCIL (ABAC) 
MEXICO CITY
February 27 - March 1, 1998

ABAC Sets Restoring Asian Financial Stability and Progress on
Sectoral Trade Liberalization as Top Priority for 1998

APEC Business Advisory Council members met February 27 - March 1 in
Mexic o City and agreed on the group's priorities and plans for the
current yea r. This was the first ABAC meeting under its new
Malaysian Chairman, Tan Sri Dato' Tajudin Ramli, Chairman of
Malaysian Airlines System. "ABAC has set an ambitious agenda for a
very productive year," noted the Chairman. "We will be using
opportunities throughout 1998 to bring business views on regional
business and finance issues to the attention of APEC minister s and
top government officials".

Top priorities agreed by ABAC include:

Restoring regional financial stability. ABAC will develop business
recomm endations to help restore private sector confidence in Asian
economies af fected by the recent financial turmoil and avoid
future such crises. Prop osals will be delivered to APEC Finance
Ministers and other international groups working on the crisis.
ABAC's Financial Crisis Task Force presented various proposals for
addressing the instability to the full Mexico meeting.

Building support for sectoral trade liberalization. ABAC agreed to
use co ntacts with political leaders in their economies to build
support for APE C's program of early trade liberalization in 15
industry and service sectors. In an advocacy letter to APEC Trade
Ministers, ABAC notes that while the program is voluntary, business
believes participation by all economies would best serve APEC's
liberalization agenda.

Providing business input on electronic commerce issues. As APEC
examines  electronic commerce issues this year, ABAC plans to give
business advice  focusing on three aspects: technology (hardware
and software), legal and  regulatory frameworks, and applications.
An ABAC-sponsored business confe rence on e-commerce is tentatively
planned for late April in Hong Kong, China.

Monitoring APEC action plans. The Council is concerned that action
plans  should address the situation in member economies affected by
the currency crises. In order to facilitate the flow of capital back
to the region, A BAC plans to forward a recommendation to APEC Trade
Ministers that financ ial services be included as a priority sector
for liberalization. ABAC al so renewed its recommendation that APEC's
non-binding investment principl es be implemented by member
economies. These would provide an open, trans parent and predictable
regime to encourage inward investment. The Council will also
continue to monitor the action plans, ensuring that business views
are presented to APEC Leaders and Ministers in a timely fashion.

Launching the Partnership for Equitable Growth (PEG). ABAC
recognizes eco nomic and technical cooperation ("ecotech") as its
social agenda, represe nting the broader responsibilities of
business society. A newly formed ta sk force commenced work in
Mexico City to set up the PEG, an organization meant to catalyze
business/private sector participation in APEC ecotech activities,
in 1998. ABAC proposed the PEG in 1997, and APEC Leaders endo rsed
the proposal at their November meeting in Vancouver.

Small and medium-sized enterprises In each of these areas ABAC will
be developing proposals to advance the interests of SMEs. In
particular, members expressed concern about the impact of the
financial crisis on smaller companies.

he ABAC members in Mexico met on the margins of their meeting with
Mexic an President Ernesto Zedillo and were also addressed by Mexican
Trade Min ister Dr.  Herminio Blanco and Foreign Minister Ms. Rosario
Green.

ABAC, the business/private sector arm of the Asia-Pacific Economic
Cooperation forum, was formed in 1995 to advise APEC Economic
Leaders on issues affecting business in the region. The Council
issued reports in 1996 and 1997 providing recommendations to the
Leaders on a range of trade, investment and economic cooperation
issues.

ABAC's next meeting will be May 1-3 in Sydney, Australia.