[asia-apec 433] APEC's study on the impact of liberalization

[PAN Asia Pacific]

At last year's APEC ministerial in Vancouver, APEC Ministers stated:

"Ministers acknowledge the need to expand the assessment of the
impact of trade liberalization and facilitation, in order to
promote a broad-based and balanced understanding of this issue
within domestic communities." 

It appears that Australia is taking the lead on this study. 
Instead of being a legitimate look into the effects of
liberalization, APEC is turning the study into a PR job.  The
following is a request for proposals from consultants interested in
doing the study.

(You can get this off the APEC secretariat site at:
http://apecsec.org.sg) 

Please read,
Devlin Kuyek 
Asia-Pacific Peoples' Assembly




ASIA-PACIFIC ECONOMIC COOPERATION

COMMUNICATING WITH APEC COMMUNITIES ON THE IMPACT OF LIBERALISATION

Objective

 At a time of rising uncertainty in most economies about the
impact o f trade and investment liberalisation, community support for
continued li beralisation is increasingly important.  Surveys confirm
that an ambivale nce exists within many APEC economies about the
impact of trade liberalis ation.  This ambivalence may be growing in
some of the economies of the region, due to the uncertainty
associated with recent financial instability.  This project will
contribute to advancing community understanding of the benefits of
trade and investment liberalisation, while acknowledging the
associated adjustment costs.  By raising community understanding of
and support for liberalisation, this project directly contributes
to APEC 's core trade and investment liberalisation objectives. 

Background

Community support for trade and investment liberalisation
is importa nt to APEC's continued momentum.  This work program
contributes directly to the objective of obtaining community support
for APEC's trade and inve stment liberalisation and facilitation
agenda, by raising community under standing of the impact of
liberalisation.

Leaders at Vancouver acknowledged the important link between
community support and continued strong trade and investment
liberalisation, stating that:

"Connecting with our constituents: We stress our common belief that
ongoing and ambitious trade and investment liberalization remains
indispensable to the health of our economies.  To underpin our
efforts, support among the people of the region for continuing
trade and investment liberalization is essential.  We welcome the
decision by Minister s to develop an APEC-wide work program to
assess the full impacts of trade liberalization, including its
positive effects on growth and employment , and to assist members
in managing associated adjustments."

The APEC Committee on Trade and Investment has established a
steering group to manage this project.  

The Project's Scope of Work

The successful consultant(s) would be required to undertake a work p
rogram to assist member economies to communicate with APEC
communities on the impact of liberalisation.  To meet the aim of
improving understanding on the part of APEC communities about the
impact of liberalisation, the project is comprised of two components
(Phase 1 and Phase 2) and an evaluation phase, relying on input from
the consultant involved in Phase 2 of the project.

Analysis

The aim of the analytical component of the project is to provide tan
gible and easily-understood examples of the benefits of
liberalisation. These will be developed into key themes or messages
that can be used in the communications component of the project.  The
analytical phase is to be comprised of five case study modules and a
review module aimed at communicating to a lay audience the major
findings of economic research on the impact of liberalisation.  The
Steering Group has invited the APEC Economic Committee to undertake
the review.  While discussions are stil l underway with the Economic
Committee as to whether it will be in a posi tion to undertake this
module, consultants are asked to include this modu le within their
budgets.  Should the Economic Committee be ready to under take the
work, consultants will be advised of this and will be permitted to
reallocate funding from that module to increase their budget for the
five case study
modules.

Communications activities

Phase 2 of the project will involve the development of communication
s strategies to assist economies to promote understanding of impact
of li beralisation for domestic communities.  The objective of the
communicatio ns strategies would be to produce models of various
communications media, which might be adapted by various member
economies for use in their dome stic jurisdictions.

Evaluating the Program

At the end of the project, a consultant involved in phase 2 of th
e project would be required to assist the Steering Group in its evaluatio
n of the work program.  

Duties of Consultants

The consultant(s) will undertake five c ase studies to analyse the
impact of liberalisation on businesses and con sumers.  In carrying
out the case studies, consultant(s) will travel with in/to the
selected economies to investigate through first-hand interviews and
analysis the impact of liberalisation on consumers and businesses.

Case studies should focus on sectors and time periods where there
has bee n a distinct period of trade and investment liberalisation,
and where lib eralisation is the dominant changing factor in the
environment facing con sumers and businesses.

The consultant(s) will include in these case studies e xamples of
how businesses and consumers have responded successfully to li
beralisation.  The studies will also examine the adjustment costs
associated with liberalisation, including how businesses have
responded t o increased competition arising from liberalisation.

The case studies will include a representative selection of
economies and sectors, and will examine the experience of small and
medium sized enterprises. The consultant will prepare a report
summarising the key theme s of economic research on the impact of
trade and investment liberalisati on

The report will survey major research on the impact of trade and
investment liberalisation on key economic indicators, includin g
income, employment and economic welfare.  The survey will cover
researc h produced on this subject within the past decade.

The main purpose of the report will be to highlight  for a lay
audience the key themes arising from this research. One such theme,
for instance, is that the majority of the gains of liberalisa tion
accrue to the liberalising economy.  The report will be written and
presented in a style suitable for the non-technical reader.  It will
be between 30 pages and 50 pages in length, including boxes and
charts.  The consultant(s) will publish and print the results of
these case studies into high quality booklets of approximately 20
pages in leng th.  The consultant will print 1,000 copies of each
case study report and the review module.  The consultant will also
publish the results of the six modules on the internet, in
consultation with the APEC Secretariat, possibly on the APEC
Secretariat home page.

All of the reports will develop and highlight ``key
th emes'' or short messages about the impact of liberalisation on
consumers and businesses. 

The selection of economies and sectors for the case studies wi ll be
a matter for consideration by the Steering Group, based on the prop
osals submitted in the competitive tendering process. 

The consultant(s) will undertake to produce w ritten communications
strategies detailing options for targeting the key messages to each
of the target audiences. The initial focus audiences will include
(i) the media, (ii ) business groups, (iii) policy makers, opinion
leaders, and legislators, and (iv) the general public, including
community groups.  (Other audienc es that could be considered later
include (v) academics and (vi) students at secondary and tertiary
level.

The consultant(s) will develop and dist ribute a range of media as
nominated by the Steering Group, for use in th e target audiences in
each APEC economy. While the selection of the media is to be decided
by the Steering Group based on the bids provided for phase 2 of the
project,  these could, for example, include a media reference ki t,
short information pamphlets about the impact of liberalisation for
bro ad distribution in the community, and an internet site to
distribute the case studies and key themes about the impact of
liberalisation.

A consultant will be required to organi se and manage an APEC Seminar
on ``Communicating the Impact of Liberalisa tion''.  The seminar
will disseminate the results of the analy tical phase of the
research program and discuss different members' approa ches to
communicating about trade and investment liberalisation to domest
ic communities.  High-profile academics, senior business representat
ives and trade and investment policy makers from APEC economies will
be i nvited.  This seminar will be based around the theme
"Communicating with APEC Communities" and will allow academic,
business and poli cy-making communities from the region to examine
experiences in communica ting with APEC communities.

The consultant will be required to produce for the Steering G roup a
short written assessment of the extent to which the various media
that are developed and trialled in phase 2 of the project have
raised com munity awareness of the impact of liberalisation.  This
evaluation should provide a quantitative assessm ent of the extent
to which each of the communications strategies have rai sed
understanding in the nominated target audiences.  This evaluation
sho uld incorporate survey research on attitudinal change in those
target aud iences. The report should also incorporate lessons
identifi ed in the APEC seminar on best-practice strategies in
communicating with different audiences to raise understanding of the
impact of liberalisatio n.  This report is to be published in a high
quality fo rmat in a booklet of approximately 50 pages in length.
4000 copies will be printed for distribution by members of the
Steering Group to trade and investment policy makers in APEC
economies.  This will also be made avai lable on the internet.


Qualification of Consultants

Consultants must be APEC-wide research networks with the characteris
tics specified (at i. to vi.).  Those consultants wishing to tender
for t his project should present a proposal to the APEC Secretariat
by the clos e of business of 8 May 1998, addressing the following
criteria:

a strong record of technical expertise in the analysis of the impact
of trade and investment liberalisation, particularly throu gh the use
of case studies;

an existing institutional presence in most APEC economies an d
evidence of successful collaboration in undertaking research in
conjunc tion with a number of APEC economies.  This will allow the
successful res earch networks to undertake both the research and
the communications phas es of the project with all APEC
economies.

a capacity to deliver the communications phase of the
program across all APEC economies;  

an outline of the approach to the task envisaged by the cons ultant,
and the methodologies to be applied, including outlining possible
case studies that could be undertaken; 
 
 demonstrated capacity to organise an international seminar in
volving high-profile academics, business representatives and policy maker
s; and

evidence of capacity to deliver high quality outputs on time and on
budget.

It is possible for consultants to bid for a selection of the
five ca se studies in Phase 1, or alternatively, to bid with another
institution in a consortium for the five case studies.


Inquiries on this request for proposal should be addressed to:
Mr Tsunehiro Ogawa
Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Secretariat
438 Alexandria Road
#14--01/04 Alexandria Point
Singapore 119958
Tel No.  (65) 2761880
Fax No. (65) 2761775
Email: to@ mail.apecsec.org.sg