[asia-apec 677] SOM Press Release (1 of 3)

[PAN Asia Pacific]

APEC SECRETARIAT PRESS RELEASE 29/98
2.00 PM, 12 SEPTEMBER 1998
KUANTAN, MALAYSIA

PRESS BRIEFING BY MR ABDUL RAZAK RAMLI, 
APEC SOM CHAIR 1998, MALAYSIA

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1.The third APEC Senior Officials in Kuantan, Malaysia from 13-15
September 1998, will be the last Senior Officials Meeting for the
year. Meetings of the APEC sub-fora were also held prior to the
SOM. 

2.A number of issues will be dealt with at this meeting. These
include the issue of Early Voluntary Sectoral Liberalisation
(EVSL), finalisation of the Committee on Trade and Investment
Report to Ministers and the Report on Economic and Technical
Cooperation, and presentations of Individual Action Plans. Other
issues on the agenda also include infrastructure, electronic
commerce and the impact of expanding population and economic growth
on food, energy and the environment (FEEEP) and harnessing of
technologies. 

3.Senior Officials will also be finalising recommendations to
Ministers on the several issues relating to the management review,
business private sector involvement in APEC and on APEC’s response
towards alleviating the impact of the financial crisis. 

4.On the EVSL issue, SOM will be continuing work to finalise by this
month, the sectoral arrangements on the nine fast-track sectors, as
was directed by Trade Ministers in June. A series of technical group
meetings are on-going to compile economies’ positions and responses
to the nine sectors and further develop work in the other six
sectors. 

5.Individual Action Plans continue to feature significantly in APEC
work, being recognised as the core mechanism for achieving APEC
goals. Senior Officials will be briefed on progress made in
improvements to the IAPs in this third year of implementation. 

6.On the management review, the SOM, on the instructions of
Ministers last year, is undertaking a review of APEC processes. SOM
will provide a preliminary report for Ministers’ consideration in
November. Three economies, being the current and future APEC
Chairs, are taking the lead to prepare the initial report, namely
Malaysia, New Zealand and Brunei Darussalam. This report would be
discussed by Senior Officials in Kuantan. Basically, the issues
going to be discussed are the APEC structures, proliferation and
consolidation issues. 

7.SOM would also discuss how to widen involvement of the
business/private sector in the APEC process. 

8.On the response of APEC to alleviating the impact of the financial
crisis, APEC through its Finance Ministers, agreed to develop and
strengthen regional financial and capital markets. In addition, APEC
is also considering measures on economic governance and strengthening
social safety nets to minimise the impacts on the population.