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SINGAPORE: The government has set aside S$100 million to host the year-long series of Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meetings in Singapore.
The meetings will culminate with a summit on November 14 and 15, attended by leaders from the 21 APEC economies.
In 2006, the amount spent on hosting the eight-day IMF World Bank meetings in Singapore was over S$100 million.
The APEC 2009 Organising Committee has to pay special attention to details when planning for the mega event where some 10,000 delegates, officials and media personnel will be present.
These details include gifts for the delegates and tea break menus.
Koh Lin-Net, chair of APEC 2009 Organising Committee, said: "We have to manage the attractiveness of the tea break against the rest of the meeting. Sometimes, you find that the teh tarik stall out in the reception area is so attractive that they don't want to go back to the meeting. We have to manage that."
There have been a series of rehearsals – sometimes into the wee hours of the morning – to ensure clockwork precision.
"Two weeks ago, when we rehearsed the arrival of 21 convoys to the Istana, we started on the basis of 90-second intervals in between convoys. Then we go down to discussing that 90 seconds is too much, maybe we need to go to 60 seconds. Then we feel 60 seconds is too much, we go down to 30 seconds – that's the level of details," said Ms Koh.
The key meeting of the 21 APEC leaders will be held at the Istana, while the ministerial meetings and the APEC CEO Summit will be held at the Suntec Convention Centre.
The organising committee said this arrangement would help to minimise inconveniences to the public and ensure the highest level of security for the visiting delegations and leaders.
To manage any demonstrations by civic groups, Ms Koh said the recently enacted Public Order Act will be enforced. However, she added: "We do not expect civic demonstrations that we see in other meetings simply because APEC meetings are less prone to such civil public demonstrations."
Singapore organisers have arranged an advance visit for the APEC economies next week to explain arrangements made for the APEC leaders' meeting. The trip includes visits to various meeting venues and a briefing on the details of the traffic arrangements.
The organising committee added that there would not be prolonged road closures and where possible, lane closures would be implemented instead. There will be a dedicated APEC lane which will be closed to the public prior to and during the motorcade movement to ensure minimal disruptions to normal traffic flow.
Nonetheless, motorists can expect some changes to the daily operations in the Suntec/Marina Bay area, such as route diversions for buses and pedestrians, relocation of taxi stands, as well as changes to parking facilities.
All traffic announcements will be made early to enable motorists to plan alternative routes in advance.
Meanwhile, some 700 officers from 40 government agencies will be involved in the organisation of APEC 2009. Among the areas they are looking into include security, hospitality, medical and media coverage arrangements.
Some 17,400 personnel from Singapore and Singapore-based companies are involved in the physical set up of the various meeting venues, providing various services for the meetings and designing attire for staff.
Moreover, 1,800 volunteer ambassadors will be recruited to play host to the international delegates and 120 hours of rehearsals have been planned.
- CNA/yb/so
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