APEC Business Advisory Council to Meet 12-15 May in Sydney
The APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC), the private sector arm of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC), will hold its second meeting of 2002 in Sydney, 12-15 May.
This will be the second ABAC meeting of APEC's Mexico Year, when Mexico will host the meeting of APEC Economic Leaders in Los Cabos, Baja California Sur in the month of October. ABAC's theme for this year is "Sharing Development to Reinforce Global Security". During the course of their meeting in Sydney, ABAC members will have the opportunity to meet top leaders of government and business in Australia. In conjunction with the ABAC meeting, there will also be a joint ABAC-Pacific Economic Cooperation Symposium on Risk Management, Pricing and Capital Provisioning to be held at the head offices of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia on 16-17 May.
ABAC comprises up to three senior business representatives from each of APEC's 21 member economies appointed by their respective heads of economy to advise APEC Economic Leaders and Ministers on issues affecting business. The Council is chaired this year by Mr. Javier Prieto de la Fuente, Senior Vice President of External Affairs of the CEMEX Group. ABAC's work during the year will be to draft and finalize the text of its Report to APEC Economic Leaders. The five bodies set up within ABAC this year that will develop the priorities are task forces on finance, small and medium enterprises, business facilitation, and technology as well as an Action Plan Monitoring Committee.
In a change from the practices of past years, ABAC will be presenting a pre-report to the APEC Ministers Responsible for Trade, who will meet in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico 29-30 May. The pre-report will also be submitted to other APEC Ministers as it will contain other issues that are not directly trade-related. This pre-report is intended to brief Ministers on the ABAC priorities that require immediate implementation.
As in the past years, ABAC will develop a final report that will contain recommendations on ways to improve business and investment in the APEC region and to help ensure that all in the region enjoy the benefits of globalization. ABAC members will present ABAC's recommendations to APEC Economic Leaders when they meet in Los Cabos, Baja California Sur, October 26-27.
Press Arrangements and Contacts
Mr. Prieto along with the Taskforce and Committee Chairs and co-Chairs will hold a press conference to report on the outcomes of the meeting at 11:15 a.m. Wednesday, 15 May in the Holmes Room, Level 1 of the Regent Hotel, located at 199 George St., Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia (Tel: 61 2 9238-0000; Fax: 61 2 9251-2851; E-mail: [email protected] ). Representatives from print and electronic media outlets are invited to attend. In addition, television cameras will be allowed to film the opening moments of the first ABAC plenary session at 08:30 a.m. on Monday, 13 May in Ballroom 1, Level 1, of the Regent Hotel.
Requests for interviews with individual ABAC members may be directed to the contacts below.
ABAC's 2001 Report to APEC Leaders is available on the ABAC and APEC websites:
Additional background information about ABAC is already available at that site. To order a bound volume of the ABAC Report, contact Mr. Luz as indicated below.