[asia-apec 1253] APEC/NZ

[APEC Monitoring Group]

>From The Dominion, Wellington, NZ 
17/8/99

Buying access to ministers 'wrong'
By Victoria Main

ANY move by corporate sponsors of New Zealand's Apec year to buy access to ministers or government officials from member economies would be wrong, International Trade Minister Lockwood Smith said yesterday.

The private sector is sponsoring the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation events to the tune of $4 million.

Juliet McKee, director of business relations for the Apec Taskforce, said some sponsors would be able to rub shoulders with official delegations at the receptions and dinners surrounding the various meetings, culminating in the leaders' summit next month.

Their access would not, however, extend to meetings with United States President Bill Clinton and other Apec leaders, she said.

Dr Smith said private-sector executives did not have to be Apec sponsors to be invited to the social functions.  He also said the funding arrangements did not mirror the controversial deals reportedly set up by the organisers of the World Trade Organisation ministerial summit in Seattle in November.  The organisers have come under fire for selling sponsors access to government officials, according to The Economist magazine.

Dr Smith said yesterday that he would be worried if he learned of anything similar in New Zealand.

"Where I would get concerned is if through sponsorship there was any special access to any minister or any delegation.  That would concern me because that's not right.  But nobody has ever approached me for anything like that."

He saw sponsorship as an excellent way of helping governments fund costly events.

But Labour leader Helen Clark said corporate funding was inappropriate for intergovernmental meetings.  "There's an ethical issue here, and it concerns me particularly when corporate sponsorship then seeks the flow-on benefits of a high-profile," she said.