[asia-apec 460] APEC: The PBEC meeting

[PAN Asia Pacific]

SUNS #4220 Thursday 28 May 1998

south-north development monitor    SUNS [Email Edition]

eighteenth year   4220   thursday   28   may   1998


Trade: APEC entrepreneurs back financial globalisation!

Santiago, May 26 (IPS/Gustavo Gonzalez) -- Representatives of the
Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation forum (APEC) came out in favour of
financial globalisation despite the current crisis in stock and
currency exchanges, supporting ongoing market liberalisation.
The crisis amongst the Asian Tigers, and particularly in Indonesia, is
one of the main topics on the agenda of the Pacific Basin Economic
Council (PBEC) meeting which would end Wednesday.

PBEC represents more than 1,000 business groups of the 20 APEC
economies (Australia, Canada, South Korea, Chile, China, Colombia,
Ecuador, Fiji, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New
Zealand, Peru, the Philippines, Russia, Thailand, Taiwan and the United
States).

The analyses and resolutions of this forum will be considered in the up
coming annual summit of APEC leaders, planned for November this year in
Kuala Lumpur, where the progress of the trade liberalisation process in
the area will be discussed.

Executives of Asian, US and Oceanian companies meeting in Santiago
agreed it would be counterproductive to try and put the brakes on
globalisation of the financial markets as a measure to counteract the
crisis in Southeast Asia.

For the entrepreneurs, the way out of the current stock and currency
exchange, political and social problems of Indonesia and other
countries of the region is, precisely, to recover their investment
capacity by attracting new capital.

Working from this basis, the PBEC forum reiterated its condemnation of
all types of protectionism, with criticism of health and safety
barriers on trade in foodstuffs and also of environmental and labour
norms which impose conditions on the circulation of capital and goods.

The liberalisation of new sectors, like telecommunications, was one of
the central questions tackled in the first workshop, with suggestions
of how to guarantee competition by blocking forms of monopolisation.

Entrepreneurial backing for economic liberalisation was also made clear
in the discussion of privatisation, considered not only as an
instrument to attract investments, but also to contribute to trade
liberalisation.

Chile's President Eduardo Frei, inaugurated the meeting Monday stating
the crisis in Southeast Asia must not lead to procrastination on the
creation of an Asia-Pacific free trade area in the early years of next
century.

Frei said the process of gradual and liberalisation by sector agreed by
the APEC governors is already behind schedule - the initial aim was to
liberalise the markets between 2010 and 2020, but it is now suggested
this process be delayed.

"In our opinion such an unhappy backward step would be highly negative,
as this would seriously damage the credibility of this forum," said the
Chilean leader.

The Asia-Pacific free trade area would be the biggest free market in
the world, not only in terms of population, but also in contribution to
the world product and the volume of exchange.

The economic potential of the vast Pacific Basin should be one of the
main motors for reinforcing the economic globalisation process, without
allowing for this to be beaten by the current crisis in Southeast Asia,
concluded the meeting.

Filipino banker Octavio Espiritu said the difficulties faced by some
countries do not provide enough foundations for turning back the
financial globalisation process, as this has simple and plentiful
benefits.

Bruce Galloway, of the Royal Bank of Canada, declared he also supported
the financial liberalisation of foreign funds, with the precondition
that the countries must liberalise their internal financial systems.

The Canadian banker advocated flexibilisation of the exchange rates,
within a framework of strict regulations and supervision impeding
disproportionate increases in interest rates due to the difficulties
this creates.

Gong Haocheng, of the Shanghai Stock Exchange, said investments must be
attracted to guarantee the economic development of the countries, which
must in turn work towards adequate control of their foreign debt.