APEC as an Institution: Multilateral Governance in the Asia-Pacific

11. Business Involvement in APEC

Business Involvement in APEC 199 By: ROS Size: 6" x 9" J/No: 03-10509 Fonts: Bembo 11 BUSINESS INVOLVEMENT IN APEC MICHAEL C. MULLEN APEC and the Business Community: Involvement and Expectations One characteristic makesAPEC unique in the long history of governmentto -government international organizations: it has allowed the private sector to play a more direct and influential role in its deliberations than any similar organization.The business community’s involvement inAPEC has been the impetus for some of the organization’s most significant accomplishments. The private sector’s high expectations are a healthy impetus to APEC action: when business invests time and resources in an issue, it expects concrete results in the relatively near term. These expectations can be disappointed when the APEC process, based on forming a consensus that even one member can disrupt, produces inadequate or no results, and takes too long to do so. The opportunities and modalities of business involvement in APEC are as broad and varied as the APEC structure itself. One of APEC’s genuine strengths has been the window it provides for private sector initiative and entrepreneurship,and the commitment of resources,interest, 05a APEC Ch 11 4/9/03, 1:13 PM 199 200 Michael C. Mullen By: ROS Size: 6" x 9" J/No: 03-10509 Fonts: Bembo and energy from the business community has helped APEC achieve very practical goals, such as the online training being provided by the private sector through the APEC human capacity building promotion plan. Through APEC, business has been able to co-operate with governments to effect change in policies in the direction of more liberalized trade and greater business facilitation — in other words, change that has a positive impact on economic growth and raising living standards in the region. It is against this benchmark of concrete changes in government regulatory and other policies that business judges the results of its involvement in APEC. The breadth and scope of formal and informal vehicles for business involvement in APEC is striking.The APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) was created by the Leaders as the official voice of the private sector and meets directly with the Leaders, providing an annual report with specific recommendations. Numerous other levels of the APEC hierarchy include interactions with the private sector that range from ongoing, substantial participation in the group’s activities to one-day conferences associated with major meetings. Virtually every Working Group and other APEC subgroups officially welcome the participation of business, and private sector representatives are often included in official delegations to a range of APEC meetings. This chapter will examine the processes and results that have evolved from this varied landscape of activities. The APEC Business Advisory Council The major vehicle for private sector input to APEC is the APEC Business Advisory Council. The ABAC includes three senior business representatives from each economy appointed by their respective Leaders. In addition to the meeting the Leaders have with each other, the ABAC is the only group they meet with each year. Owing to the ABAC’s role as the official voice of the business community within APEC, a detailed analysis of how this organization has developed and the challenges it is facing is warranted. ABAC’s Mandate Leaders declared in Osaka in 1995 that: Recognizing that business is the source of vitality for the Asia-Pacific and the driving force for regional economic development, we will appoint the members of the APEC Business Advisory Council to provide insights and counsel for our APEC activities. 05a APEC Ch 11 4/9/03, 1:13 PM 200 Business Involvement in APEC 201 By: ROS Size: 6" x 9" J/No: 03-10509 Fonts: Bembo ABAC’s mandate is • To provide APEC Leaders with advice on the implementation of APEC’s agenda and other specific business sector priorities. • To respond when various APEC fora request information about business-related issues, or the business perspective on specific areas of co-operation. Since its creation in 1995, ABAC has forwarded six Reports to the Leaders, with recommendations on a full range of issues relevant to the achievement of APEC’s goals of free trade and investment liberalization by 2010/2020.The ABAC has often supplemented these Reports with specific letters on individual issues to Ministers, particularly in advance of Ministerial Meetings. ABAC usually meets four times a year, in January/February, May,August, and coincident with the annual APEC...