Strengthening Economic Legal Infrastructure - Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation

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The Strengthening Economic Legal Infrastructure (SELI) Coordinating Group encourages continuing regulatory and institutional reform, particularly by building the capacity and skills of individuals in the area of economic legal infrastructure, including regulatory and institutional reforms, and corporate governance. It also works to improve the capacity of legal institutions and government agencies in applying and enforcing rules on corporations and competition.

During the 1999 APEC New Zealand process, discussion focused on strengthening the market function in view of the 1997 Asian economic crisis. As a concrete step for strengthening the market function, a roadmap was endorsed at the APEC Ministerial Meeting in 1999. In 2000 the Symposium on Economic Legal Infrastructure was held in Indonesia where the Cooperation Framework for APEC's SELI was developed. The Coordinating Group was formally established as an informal meeting in 2001.

As a result of the debate on the possible expansion of the Osaka Action Agenda (OAA) in 2002, SELI was incorporated into the OAA as a new chapter. SELI was envisaged to contribute to sustainable economic growth by enhancing transparency and predictability in the investment-related business sector.

The APEC SELI Coordinating Group is a sub-forum of the APEC Committee on Trade and Investment (CTI), and has been chaired by Japan since its establishment. The SELI Coordinating Group members meet biannually in conjunction with the first and third APEC Senior Officials' Meetings.

Achievements

The Reporting Mechanism on SELI
Following the expansion of the OAA, an annual voluntary progress report on strengthening economic and legal infrastructure in each APEC economy was initiated. The reports contain annual progress and future plans for strengthening economic and legal infrastructure in member economies. The report is flexible enough to allow each economy to report on relevant topics that fall under the SELI Menu of Options in the areas of corporate law, competition law and capacity and institution building. This flexibility is crucial given the diverse range of legal structures and the differing levels of development and institutional reform among member economies.

Major Capacity Building Projects

The Third Training Course on Competition Policy, jointly organized with the Competition Policy Deregulation Group, was held in Singapore on 1-3 August 2007. The themes of the training course were "Competition Policy and SMEs" and "Effective Implementation of Competition Policy and Law". Presentations covered how competition policy is implemented and law and law enforcement in member economies.�

Sharing Experiences in APEC Economies on Strengthening the Economic Legal Infrastructure, was on 6-7 March 2007 held in Ha Noi, Viet Nam. The seminar aimed to facilitate information-sharing on policy direction for market-oriented economic reform and specific policy tools, such as model laws and training programs in a third country, based upon the experience of strengthening the economic legal infrastructure in Viet Nam and other economies; and
Self-funded workshops on strengthening private commercial alternative dispute resolution (ADR) were held in Bangkok and Beijing, on 15-16 June and 19-20 June 2006 respectively. The workshops, which were organized by Australia, were aimed at officials with specific technical expertise and covered issues such as effective dispute avoidance and best practices in solving international commercial disputes through mediation and arbitration.
Seminars on fighting corruption and ensuring transparency were held (under the auspices of Australia) in Ha Noi and Manila, on 12-13 January and 16-17 January 2006 respectively. This self-funded capacity building project was aimed at improving the technical expertise of officials.

Current Activities

SELI will continue to improve its reporting mechanism in consultation with the Economic Committee (EC) in light of the EC's new mandate to focus on structural reform. SELI's new mechanism should avoid duplication of reporting from member economies and ensure added value;
SELI will develop its work plan and program for 2007 based on the SELI menu of options which includes capacity and institutional building, competition policy and corporate law, corporate governance and outreach to business, through raising awareness and advocacy activities as well as through the SELI reporting;
Capacity building projects such as:

International Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Mechanisms scheduled to be held in Kuala Lumpur at the end of November and early December 2007.

Future initiatives under consideration include:

The Fourth Training Course on Competition Policy, jointly organized with the Competition Policy Deregulation Group was proposed to be held in Indonesia.
Indonesia proposed a Workshop on Public Private Partnership and Risk Management.
Japan proposed a concept paper for 2008 for a Survey and Workshop on Strengthening the Economic Legal Infrastructure for Regional Economic Integration. Since structural reform is recognized as one of the significant elements of regional economic integration, this survey will be highlighted on how to promote strengthening the economic legal infrastructure, especially focusing on commercial/company law, bankruptcy law and accounting system.