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Vol.5, April 2005 |
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The Korean Deputy Minister for Trade and Investment Policy, Gye-hyung Lee, called on the Asia-Pacific region to increase efforts to implement paperless trading systems. The move is aimed at reducing red tape and the cumbersome administrative processes faced by businesses when they trade across borders using paper forms.
Addressing the APEC Private-Public Partnership Dialogue for promoting Paperless Trading in Seoul in February, Mr. Lee highlighted the importance his government had placed on expanding paperless trading systems. The dialogue also provided an opportunity for business people to present their opinions to government representatives on issues such as the mutual recognition of Certification and Qualification standards.
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Sharing APEC's trade facilitation expertise with developing economies was a key theme of an "APEC-WTO Trade Facilitation Roundtable" held in Geneva. WTO Director-General, Dr. Supachai Panitchpakdi, said the Roundtable provided an excellent opportunity to take account of the views of developing Member Economies that are key to advancing the current round of WTO negotiations.
The roundtable was attended by more than 100 representatives of WTO Member Economies. Through sharing information on APEC's voluntary process, delegates from international fora and economies were able to look at the need for internationally standardized rules on trade facilitation within the WTO's legal framework.
Presentations to the Roundtable were made by a range of speakers including the Chair of APEC's Committee on Trade and Investment, Alan Bowman, the African Union Commissioner for Trade and Industry, Elisabeth Tankeu, and the Chair of the WTO Trade Facilitation Negotiation Group, Ambassador Muhamad Noor Yacob. |
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On February 9, Australia announced that Sydney will be the host city for the 2007 APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting. Describing the event as "the most significant international meeting to have been hosted by Australia" the Prime Minister of Australia, John Howard, said the 2007 APEC Leaders' Meeting is likely to be held in September.
Several thousand people, including the Leaders' and their representatives from each of APEC's 21 Member Economies, are expect to attend the Leaders' Meeting and associated events in Sydney. Mr. Howard said a number of other ministerial and official meetings taking place as part of APEC Australia 2007 would be held in venues around the country. |
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In February, the APEC International Centre for Sustainable Tourism (AICST) proposed a series of measures at the Post-Tsunami Emergency Task Force Meeting, to assist regional tourism operators to recover from the damage caused by the recent tsunami and to increase the capacity of regional tourism operators to deal with future crises.
AICST Executive Director, Mr. Ian Kean, said that AICST is prepared to contribute to the work of the task force through the development of enhanced risk management procedures for crisis management in regional tourist destinations. This contribution builds on the 2004 Tourism Risk Management report undertaken by AICST in partnership with the World Tourism Organization (WTO) working with the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA). Mr. Kean indicated that AICST can develop materials in a range of languages for use in training workshops for government and industry representatives. AICST can also contribute research resources to provide new information to enhance preparedness and management in the event of future crises. |
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| To view all recent APEC media releases, speeches and fact sheets, click on Find Out More. |
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