| |
| |
![]() |
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
SINGAPORE: The annual Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting, which bridges economies across the Pacific, takes place this week in Lima, Peru.
Ahead of the event, observers are already pointing to the significance of the gathering, given the financial tsunami that is sweeping the world.
The current global financial meltdown is expected to take centre-stage at the upcoming APEC leaders meeting.
So urgent is the need to deal with the problem that leaders would be issuing a standalone statement at the end of the meeting, outlining their collective commitment to weather the storm.
But observers Channel NewsAsia spoke to were concerned that efforts to integrate and liberalise trade may take a back seat, as some economies face domestic pressures to protect their markets.
Eduardo Pedrosa, secretary-general, Pacific Economic Cooperation Council, said: "There will be a lot of domestic distractions on government leaders. They'll have to deal with how this affects the local economy."
But it is precisely because of the downturn that observers said APEC economies need to accelerate regional integration or, at the very least, maintain the current levels of market access.
Pedrosa continued: "If you increase protection or, say, tariffs on any particular goods, all you're doing is actually raising the cost of goods which will decrease consumer expenditure and make life harder for the man on the street.
"So in that sense, we expect APEC to come up with a very strong statement giving their commitment to the global multilateral system and free trade in particular."
Another focus is to revive the World Trade Organisation's Doha Round of trade talks which have stalled over the past seven years. The aim of the Doha talks is to lower trade barriers around the world, so countries can up trade globally.
As of 2008, talks have stalled over a divide on major issues, such as agriculture, industrial tariffs, services, and trade remedies.
14 local businessmen will be part of the Singapore delegation going to Peru. The aim is to explore business opportunities in the very much untapped region of Latin America.
SembCorp Industries already has activities in Brazil in the marine sector, through its subsidiary Jurong Shipyard. Now it is looking at tapping into downstream activities as a result of oil and gas discoveries in Brazil.
Tang Kin Fei, group president & CEO, SembCorp Industries, said: "The downstream activities are the refineries, the petrochemical plants and the downstream chemical plants.
"The energy supply, the power supply, the water supply, the waste water treatment - if there are such opportunities in Brazil, we hope that we can provide this service to these customers."
Mr Tang said SembCorp is also exploring an expansion of its current business operations within the marine sector in Brazil as well as other opportunities in Peru.
SembCorp is one of about 60 Singaporean companies operating out of about 30 Latin American economies.
Business leaders will have concurrent meetings in Peru under the ambit of the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) meeting and APEC CEO Summit. They will also have a dialogue session with APEC leaders to discuss ways in which to make it easier for businesses among member economies to work with one another.
Singapore's exports to Latin America last year was a low of about two per cent of total exports.
The 21 APEC member economies are Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, The Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Chinese Taipei, Thailand, United States and Vietnam.
Together, the members account for nearly 60 per cent of global GDP and roughly 50 per cent of international trade. - CNA/vm
|
