PACIFIC BASIN ECONOMIC COUNCIL
MAIN PAGE | SPEECHES & EDITORIALS | 1999 | CLOSING ADDRESS

Closing Address John Maasland Chairman, APEC CEO Summit APEC CEO Summit Auckland, New Zealand Sunday, September 12, 1999 Ladies and gentlemen, this has been a summit of many challenges, but I think its sense can be captured in a single word: Faster. Technology is making us faster. The pace of business is growing faster by the day, And it is feeding into our expectations of the APEC promise. We understand and endorse the spirit of APEC. And I believe that the pace of our steps toward its goals will become even faster. The possible new economic order we are moving towards is a very exciting one. Gary Tooker was one of a number of distinguished leaders in technology to offer us a sense of it yesterday: Half the people in Asia have never made a telephone call, yet we are closer than we might think to a world where everyone everywhere is connected by Internet and exposed to the benefits it offers. So how do we get there? If we haven't explicitly said it, it has been implied in all the discussions, particularly as we considered the question of globalization and its relationship to nation states. The question is how to arrive at a balance that secures the huge benefits of free trade while respecting countries' rights to pursue other aims. If we outrun popular support, free trade will founder. If we take too little action, we leave the way open for a return to protectionism. That is fairly clear in principle, tougher to achieve in practice. Not only has this summit offered us some strong insights but it has called for some commitments - to speed up - to make action happen. John Smith made a compelling case for the proposition that globalization can work in harmony with nation states. Effective APEC leadership means taking initiatives to adapt and harness the power of new technologies to serve the public and sustain sovereign authority. We were offered an inspired model for political change: the spirit of "open architecture," to enable people everywhere to be within reach of technologies in order to prosper. Prime Minister Shipley reminded us that in the end the truest measure of success of APEC will be the alleviation of poverty. Yes, successful business means successful communities. The theme of disparity of wealth was raised often. President Kim Dae Jung offered what is undeniably the soundest solution to the issue: education. The Sultan of Brunei also observed, rightly, that we must work urgently to reduce the gap between developing and developed countries. This is a community, and a community depends on give and take. Secretary Daley offered the timely reminder that the great assistance of the US in bolstering trade in the wake of the 1997 financial crisis must in turn earn a response which avoids any popular backlash. Finance Minister Yosano made it clear that as economies such as Japan recover from the crisis, they are committed to take bold steps to recast their financial architecture and strengthen markets. Those initiatives will all bear greater fruit if we manage to answer the call from President Clinton this morning to make APEC's agenda the world's agenda, and carry these thoughts on to the WTO in Seattle. And likewise President Jiang Zemin, with his clear commitment to make progress to open up China's economy and reduce Tariffs. And also, if APEC leaders should endorse President Zedillo's ringing endorsement of free trade with his suggested road map to steer APEC nations successfully towards 2010, those fruits could be substantial. As we have listened and discussed these issues, particularly in the roundtable discussions, we have identified a number of points on which there is some common intent and desire to take action on. That resolve might be summed up in the proposition that going forward is also the best defense against ever falling back. So what have we been able to pull together? Firstly, I strongly believe that we have recognized that there is a communication challenge for business to win community endorsement of the APEC goals. There is undoubtedly a widespread perception that "business" has been the only real beneficiary of economic reforms of recent years. This is a barrier marked by a "them and us" attitude which can be overcome by better communication. Transparency is the key to helping people to see business in its true colors, that is: as the wealth creators in today's economy. The Business Conduct Initiative - Blueprint 2010 purposes a model on business conduct for widespread uptake by business organizations. It is designed to be inclusive, and we will be actively discussing and engaging your involvement in taking the initiative forward. The feedback from this Forum has been positive, and the out comes of this work will be brought forward at APEC 2000. Secondly, the roundtable discussions produced some clear steps of action for the APEC leaders, and echo many of the steps advocated this week by PBEC. We explored the question of e-commerce and concluded that the principle concern is that regulations not get in the way of the revolution. In particular, we concluded that governments should ensure that as few impediments as possible exist by taking advantage of the E-commerce Readiness Assessment tool. We urge leaders to embrace a paradigm shift I agriculture to enhance food security, to upgrade the global agricultural industry, and to realize the gains for all consumers and producers by changing the ways we produce, process and distribute food. There is a model ready for this: The APEC Food System. We urge them to use it. In trade liberalization, we strongly believe that APEC Leaders must bring greater focus and energy to achieve the Bogor goals of free and open trade and investment by 2010 for developed economies and 2020 for developing economies. CEOs are keen to work closely with Leaders to take APEC's trade agenda forward into the new WTO negotiations scheduled to begin in Seattle in November. They are also active to give to strong support to the development of a program to build the capacity and infrastructure of APEC economies. There are other critical issues that must be tackled: international standards for economic governance, development of greater transparency and accountability in the financial sector and meeting the longer term challenges to growth in the resource and infrastructure sectors. Summing up, I think that overall sentiment is very clear: "more, faster." We are certain that the benefits to all APEC communities will become increasingly evident if these specific actions are taken speedily and forcefully. The challenge that we present to APEC Leaders is to forge a partnership to multiply the benefits of globalization so that people throughout the region can communicate anything anywhere - anytime. In the years between now and the meeting in Brunei, our challenge is also very clear - to put these specific initiatives into action. Ladies and gentlemen, there is, apparently, a passage in one of Schumann's piano sonatas marked, "As fast as possible," which is followed a few bars later with the instruction, "Faster." A bright future is waiting for the people of the APEC economies, and we should not take any more time than we need to get there. Thank you.