Speech
of
His Excellency Fidel V. Ramos
President of the Philippines
At the opening of the APEC Ministerial Meeting
[Delivered at the Philippine International Convention Center, November 22, 1996]
Enhancing a
culture of cooperation
A FEW DAYS from now, the Philippine economy’s chairmanship of APEC will come to an end. I am not at all sure whether it is relief or regret that I feel when I contemplate this.
But I am certain the year has been a long and productive one; and I thank you all sincerely—for cooperation fully and freely given; and hard work rendered without complaint, in pursuit of our shared vision.
This year we set three distinctive tasks for ourselves. Carrying them out has distinguished our efforts in 1996 from those of previous years; and achieving them has moved us closer toward the Asia-Pacific community we envision our 18 economies to be.
Carrying out the Manila action plan for APEC
The first task we set out to do was to prepare the ground for carrying out our agenda of free and open trade and investment in the Asia-Pacific.
At Osaka last November we completed the commitment-making phase—of setting our vision, goals and agenda. And now we move into the action phase—of carrying out our individual and collective initiatives.
Presented as the 1996 Manila Action Plan for APEC, or MAPA 96 for short, these initiatives are now before you—for you to endorse to the Economic Leaders’ Summit.
MAPA 96 outlines—over the immediate, the medium and the long term—the liberalization and facilitation measures of trade and investment that our economies undertook to achieve at Bogor two Novembers ago—goals of free and open trade and investment in the region by 2010-2020.
MAPA 96 is, of course, not the last word on our individual and collective action plans.
Nor is it meant to be.
Through a continuous process of consultation, review and revision—starting next year in Vancouver—we shall be revising, improving and expanding our action plans. With respect to individual action plans, we will be seeking improvement specifically in their comparability and comprehensiveness.
Proving we can attain our goals
Much remains to be done. But through MAPA this year we begin a process of continuous and progressive trade and investment liberalization and facilitation—a process starting in January 1997 that will continue into the next century—until the Bogor goals of free and open trade and investment are fully achieved.
APEC has a long way to go. The challenge before us in Manila is to prove—on the evidence of measures actually carried out— that APEC’s goals will indeed be attained.
The object of our exercise is to convince skeptical transnational businesspeople that the free and open trade and investment APEC says it will achieve shall be achieved—because free and open trade and investment have already begun in APEC—they are already happening—and businesspeople can count on them to continue.
The second task we set out to do this year was to strengthen economic and technical cooperation.
Let me repeat what I have said on this subject on another occasion—because I believe it bears repetition.
Nothing concentrates one’s mind so wonderfully on APEC as taking one’s turn as its chairman.
For nearly a year now, APEC has been very much on my mind. Mostly, I have thought about what is required to sustain APEC over the long run.
And I am convinced that liberalizing and facilitating trade and investment alone cannot do it—however important trade and investment may be in sustaining the vigor and growth of this region. The Asia-Pacific region is so dispersed geographically and so diverse economically, politically, and culturally, that we must ask ourselves:
What can hold our region together?
Beyond the economic interdependence that free and open trade and investment foster, what can truly hold together such a pluralist region?
And when we consider that economic discord, short-term dislocations and the marginalization of some sectors of national society are problems that economic integration does not redress but tends rather to worsen, we must ask again:
What is the glue that will hold our region together?
Or to put in terms that political leaders and government officials are familiar with: How do we broaden the APEC constituency, so that APEC can be sustained over the long haul?
The short answer to all these questions is that we must develop a culture for solving problems together. We must build a community of APEC economies; and we must use the instrument of economic and technical cooperation to develop and strengthen such a culture.
This culture of cooperation will give flesh and blood to our abstract concept of an Asia-Pacific community. It will be our collective acknowledgment of our common interests and our moral purpose—interests and purpose we share despite the obvious presence of conflicting practical interests and perceptions among our countries.
This is why I consider it a signal task this year that we are strengthening economic and technical cooperation.
Here in the Philippines—in part through a Declaration now before you for your endorsement—we will gear economic and technical cooperation specifically to remove structural impediments that prevent national economies from sustaining growth and from contributing to—or benefiting from—the regionwide liberalization of trade and investment.
We will focus our activities in economic and technical cooperation on the following critical areas—all of which are aimed at removing structural impediments in national economies:
- Develop human capital;
- Enhance the efficiency and stability of capital markets;
- Strengthen economic infrastructure;
- Harness technologies of the future;
- Safeguard the quality of life through environmentally sound growth; and
- Strengthen the dynamics of small and medium enterprises.
Finally, we will emphasize the key role of the private sector in economic and technical cooperation. We will encourage Asia-Pacific businesspeople to initiate activities in economic and technical cooperation.
A new model of cooperation
In a word, we are fashioning a new model of cooperation:
- A model of cooperation that relies on sharing information, knowledge, experience and expertise, rather than on merely transferring resources from the rich to the poor;
- A model of cooperation that encourages initiative and participation from the private sector, rather than relying on governments always to assume the central role; and finally,
- A model of cooperation where everyone contributes according to one’s capabilities; where priorities are jointly set; and where there are no “junior partners” but only “equal partners.”
The third task we set out to do this year is to engage the private sector as a full partner in the APEC process.
I said it to APEC businessmen this morning—and I say it to our APEC ministers now:
The Asia-Pacific is really a creation of business. Before APEC came to be, it was business—in the course of doing business— which linked our countries together. And it was businesspeople of the region—trading with one another and investing in one another’s businesses more and more over the years—who generated and sustained the economic boom that APEC was subsequently established to foster.
Building the Asia-Pacific community
When all is said and done, it is clear that the whole object of APECs plans is to make it possible for Asia-Pacific businessmen to continue doing what comes naturally to them.
Greater participation of business in the APEC process would make our official trade and investment agenda more relevant to the needs, wants and hopes of Asia-Pacific businesspeople.
This is why the APEC Business Advisory Council was organized and convened this year—at the request of the APEC leaders. We have received its inaugural report—containing recommendations that will be discussed in an unprecedented face-to-face dialogue between business leaders and APEC leaders. At my initiative, the APEC Business Forum was organized to broaden business-sector participation in APEC So far it has attracted more than 500 CEOs and other business executives from around the region.
We have also provided for business participation in Part 2 of the Osaka Agenda—which, as you know, is economic and technical cooperation.
You might say our effort is less and less to make APEC relevant to business and more and more to make business relevant to APEC. We are inviting business—the creator of the Asia-Pacific—to join us in building the Asia-Pacific community. And I look forward to the early development of a framework plan for business participation in Asia-Pacific economic and technical cooperation.
In the long view of history
Now to sum up: I have indicated the nature of three tasks that we have carried out this year. There are other tasks—each important in its own way—that I have omitted from my enumeration.
I do not mean thereby to reduce their importance. I have dwelt only on the tasks that I believe distinguish our labors this year from those of previous years.
It would be an added grace if—in the long view of history— these three tasks in 1996 are considered to have been completed with distinction and will serve to move forward the APEC process to APEC community and win a higher quality of life for our peoples in the 21st century.