MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti political commentator Dmitry Kosyrev.) - The word "reform" can hardly be used to describe next week's annual forum of the Asian-Pacific Economic Cooperation that will be held in Pusan, South Korea.
An outside observer may believe that the forum will follow the usual routine: speeches by leaders of countries and corporations, a mix of PR tricks and government expert meetings. And finally, the leaders' summit, attended, among others, by Russian President Vladimir Putin. However, it can be said with certainty that in Pusan APEC will adjust its goals and define new means for achieving them. And Russia, being an APEC member, is one of the countries for which these changes are most beneficial. All the more so, as they come at a time when Russia is becoming increasingly active by moving in an eastern direction, both in politics and economics.
APEC is not a very common structure. It deals exclusively with economy. Ambassador Vasily Dobrovolsky, Russia's senior official in the organization, describes its tasks in the following way: to establish commendable rules of the economic game in the Asian-Pacific region for the sake of its integration. APEC engages in politics only to the extent that helps contribute to economic integration. APEC's mechanism functioning all year round through the meetings of different working groups is in fact a bureaucratic machine constantly streamlining rules for doing business that are later incorporated in the national policies and legislations of the 21 APEC member states, including the United States, China, Japan, Russia, South-East Asian countries and those on the Pacific coast of Latin America.
Mr. Dobrovolsky recalls some commonly quoted figures about APEC accounting for some 60% of global GDP, 47% of foreign trade turnover, over 40% of foreign investment and 40% of the world's population. More importantly, however, this is an increasingly integrating region, which is very often compared to the European Union, despite their huge differences. Integration is what APEC deals with.
As to changes expected in Pusan, the forum plans to review the achievements of APEC's key program, usually called the Bogor Goals. The program was adopted at the APEC summit in Bogor, Indonesia, in 1994, and provides for liberalizing trade and investment in the entire region.
However, APEC is not the World Trade Organization that leads the world towards almost duty-free trade. Since its inception in 1989, APEC has understood that businesses and the region's development should be supported in different areas, apart from duties and tariffs.
At last year's forum in Santiago, Chile, members adopted a joint set of actions against corruption. APEC's approach is as follows: corruption costs global businesses $1 trillion annually. So Pacific economies in Santiago agreed upon common policies: to extradite those involved in corruption, to arrest their assets and return them "home."
Terrorism, as a problem deteriorating the business climate, appeared on APEC's agenda in 2001, at the Shanghai forum. The organization fights against terrorism by controlling financial flows and introducing common standards of cargo transportation security. The Pusan forum, on the initiative of the host country, will pay significant attention to APEC's cultural program, i.e. measures to bring different civilizations closer. All the more so, that there are at least three civilizations in the Pacific region: the Western, Buddhist and Muslim. This issue is also related to the problem of terrorism.
Judging by available information, Russia has shown a great interest in the initiative, because this multinational and multi-confessional country could share its positive experience. Business circles playing the key role in APEC also see new challenges to economic development: epidemics (SARS and bird flu) and natural calamities. Last year's tsunami, which incurred great damage on at least three APEC members, along with bird flu will be discussed in Pusan. APEC's exchange of technologies and know-how on preventing such calamities and managing their consequences receives an enthusiastic feedback from Moscow. Russia joined the organization in 1998 hoping to be able to apply in the Pacific region its technologies and know-how in different spheres, including medicine, fire extinguishing, biological developments and many other intellectual products. Its experience of deploying mobile hospitals in Indonesia after the tsunami, for example, proved very useful.
Recently, APEC has been launching the so-called sector dialogs, i.e. working out civilized rules for separate markets. Last year, one of these dialogs, on trade in non-ferrous metals, was initiated by Russia, a key exporter of aluminium and rare earth metals.
Russia, being APEC's largest oil and gas exporter, might be expected to focus on this area at the forum. Of course, it will attend numerous sessions devoted to the issue, but it will work more actively on the issues of safe oil and gas transportation. It is always difficult to write about the outcome of an APEC forum, as well as similar EU structures. Decisions adopted at these events, are later fulfilled in its members' policies and in numerous business projects and transactions. They are not rubberstamped by APEC. Nevertheless, the Pusan event will be very interesting as a place where all the trends in Pacific economies are clearly visible.
