Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation

Type:	Economic Forum
Founded:	1989
Headquarters:	Singapore
Country:	Singapore
Website:	www.apec.org
Key People
Ambassador Muhamad Noor Yacob, Executive Director

APEC (Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation) is a ministerial forum which supports economic growth and prosperity in the Asia Pacific Region by promoting free trade and economic cooperation among its member economies. Ambassador Muhamad Noor Yacob is the current Executive Director of APEC and its Secretariat is located in Singapore.

History

Former Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke advocated the establishment of a new intergovernmental regional cooperation during his speech in Seoul, Korea on January 1989. He proposed that the new intergovernmental regional organization will focus on the common economic interests, social issues and to increase the trade and investments within the Asia Pacific Region. The regional response to Hawke's proposal was positive, some has reservations. An extreme consultation within the region was conducted by Australian officials which was led by former Australian Secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) Richard Woolcot, who was appointed as special envoy of Prime Minister Hawke. APEC was founded during the first Ministerial Meeting which was held in Canberra, Australia on November 5-7 1989. The meeting was chaired by Australian Forein Minister Gareth Evans. The 12 founding members of APEC include: Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and the United States. The founding members agreed that an open multilateral trading system is significant to attain a rapid regional economic growth and to concentrate their cooperation in the areas of investment, technology transfer and in areas related to human resources development.

APEC General Principles

APEC's general principles were unanimously instituted by its founding members during the Canberra Ministerial Meeting in 1989 which include:

• APEC's objective is to enhance economic cooperation in order to maintain the growth and development of the region and contribute to the global economic growth and development.
• The diversity of the region, different social and economic systems as well as the current levels of development should be recognized in the Cooperation.
• Cooperation should include commitment to open dialogue, consensus and equal respect for all participants and their views or opinions.
• Cooperation should be based on non-formal exchanges of consultations among Asia Pacific economies.
• The focus of cooperation should be on economic areas where there is an opportunity for progress on common interests and achieve common interests.
• Asia Pacific economies should be consistently cooperate on strengthening the open multilateral system and should not be involved in creating a trading block.
• Asia Pacific Cooperation should endeavor to strengthen the gains from independence for both regional and world economy by encouraging the flow of goods, services, capital and technology.
• Cooperation should complement and move towards existing organizations in the region including intergovernmental bodies and less formal consultative bodies such as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEA) and Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (PECC).
• Participation of Asia Pacific economies maybe expanded in the future based on the consensus among it should be evaluated based on the strength of economic linkages within the region.

Main Goal

The primary objective of APEC was identified during the Bogor Meeting in Indonesia in 1994 known as the Bogor Goals which include: free and open trade investment in the Asia Pacific Region by 2010 for industrialized countries while the developing countries target year will be on 2020.

Scope of Work

The APEC member economies are focused on achieving their declared goals by working on its three pillars or the key areas of their cooperation which include:

• Trade and Investment Liberalisation
• Business Facilitation
• Economic and Technical Cooperation

Member Economies

Currently, APEC has 21 member economies which include:

• Australia - 1989
• Brunei Darussalam - 1989
• Canada- 1989
• Indonesia- 1989
• Japan- 1989
• Republic of Korea- 1989
• Malaysia- 1989
• New Zealand- 1989
• Philippines- 1989
• Singapore- 1989
• Thailand- 1989
• United States- 1989
• People's Republic of China- 1991
• Hong Kong, China- 1991
• Chinese- 1991
• Mexico- 1993
• Papua New Guinea- 1993
• Chile- 1994
• Peru- 1998
• Russia- 1998
• Viet Nam- 1998