By Ruan Zongze
The 14th Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) Leaders'
Informal Meeting is scheduled to be held in the Vietnamese capital
Hanoi from today through Sunday, in the context of the Doha Round
of trade negotiations breaking down. As a result, efforts made by
APEC members at the conference to strengthen regional co-operation
will draw much attention from the world.
Chinese President Hu Jintao is expected to put forward
suggestions on deepening regional co-operation and offer the
Chinese Government's views on the key tasks of APEC and the
prospects ahead.
The APEC informal meeting is gaining increasing importance as
the venue where the leaders of its members talk about major issues
that have great influence on regional and global development.
APEC has 21 members from Asia, the South Pacific, Latin America
and North America, including the United States, the biggest economy
in the world, and China, the largest developing country. The
organization claims 45 percent of the world's population, 60
percent of global GNP (gross national product) and 46 percent of
the world's total trade volume.
More than three-quarters of China's foreign trade is conducted
with APEC members. And more than 80 percent of foreign direct
investment flowing into the country is from the Asia-Pacific
region. Ever since the organization was founded in 1989, China has
been actively involved in all APEC undertakings, following the
principles of enhancing political mutual trust and expanding
co-operation that benefits all parties.
It is through APEC that the country's connections with other
members, which are based on effective mechanisms, have been
consolidated.
On the other hand, China, thanks to its fast growing economy,
provides APEC members with large quantities of commodities as well
as a vast market with huge potential. In this sense, the Chinese
economy has become another locomotive powering the economic
development in the Asia-Pacific region.
Since the mechanisms of the APEC leaders' informal meeting were
introduced in 1993, the Chinese president has delivered important
speeches at the yearly meeting, expounding on the primary policies
and important principles the country follows. At the economic and
business sessions of the upcoming APEC leaders' informal meeting,
President Hu will introduce to the participating heads of state
China's scientific development outlook and make it clear that
China's growth will bring new opportunities for global and regional
development.
During the informal meeting, President Hu is scheduled to meet
with US President George W. Bush and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo
Abe.
This will be the first meeting between the Chinese and US
presidents in the wake of the US mid-term election, which has
largely altered the domestic political landscape of the United
States. Stability and continuous development of Sino-US ties are
going to be important subjects of the presidential talks.
At the meeting with Shinzo Abe, President Hu, on the basis of
Abe's China visit shortly after he was sworn in, in September, will
exchange views with the Japanese prime minister on China-Japan
relations and other issues both sides are concerned with.
The first APEC ministerial meeting was convened on November 6-7,
1989 in Canberra, Australia, marking the formal founding of APEC,
against the backdrop that the world economy was becoming
increasingly globalized, trade and investment more and more
liberalized and the trend of regional co-operation starting to form
as the Cold War was winding to an end.
The Seoul declaration adopted by the third APEC ministerial
meeting in 1991 stated that the goal and principle of the
organization is mutual reliance, common interests, an open
multilateral trade system and reduction of regional trade
barriers.
More recently, energy co-operation has become a hot topic at the
APEC conferences, following liberalization of trade and
investment.
The Doha Round of trade negotiations was launched by the World
Trade Organization's fourth ministerial meeting in November 2001 in
Doha, capital of Qatar. The World Bank estimated that 140 million
more people would have shaken off poverty by 2015 on condition that
the Doha Round of trade talks ended in success. The APEC leaders'
informal meeting in Busan last year planned to issue a declaration
and a Doha Round Agenda special statement to push for the success
of the Doha Round talks, but they failed due to gaping disputes
over agriculture.
This aroused people's concerns over, and interest in, the
prospects of regional co-operation in the Asia-Pacific region.
Bringing about an Asia-Pacific free trade zone has, therefore,
found its way onto the APEC agenda. The undertaking is worth
trying, despite numerous possible stumbling blocks on the way
towards the ultimate goal.
China hopes that APEC members do their best to see that the
stranded Doha Round is restarted and its objectives fulfilled. APEC
members should also push for further liberalization of trade and
investment and deepening of economic and technological
co-operation. At the same time, APEC members should co-operate to
cope with high oil prices, prevention of epidemic diseases and
fighting natural disasters. Finally, all APEC members ought to help
promote the reform of APEC itself and make sure that APEC's
influence on the world's regional co-operation is maintained.
It should, however, be noted that the APEC agenda is being
stretched to cover political and security issues such as the
anti-terror campaign, which are irrelevant to APEC's original
primary goals: Economic co-operation and liberalization of trade
and investment. This has watered down the central goals of the
organization.
People worry that APEC could deviate from its original
objectives. Against the backdrop of the Doha Round of trade talks
collapsing, APEC members should be clear that discussions on
political and security matters should not water down the
organization's economic character or alter it altogether.
The author is deputy director of the China Institute of
International Studies.
(China Daily November 17, 2006)
