2005 APEC Regional Capacity Building Projects Approved
US$966,336 has been committed by APEC Member Economies to undertake capacity building projects in the Asia-Pacific covering areas such as bio-safety policy development, counter terrorism preparedness and vocational training for small business people in tsunami affected areas.
The projects were agreed in principle at a meeting of the Budget and Management Committee in April and have now been endorsed by APEC's 21 Member Economies.
BMC Chair, Mr. Mario I. Artaza, said decisions on which APEC projects to fund are made by Member Economies based on a range of decisions including mandates issued by APEC Leaders and Ministers and the priorities set by that year's host of the APEC process.
"Korea 2005 will build on the success of Chile 2004 by investing resources in strengthening economic and social infrastructure in our region," Mr. Artaza said.
"Projects this year include a workshop to be held in Manila in December that will compare the obligations of economies under the WTO and the Cartagena Protocol on Bio-safety.
"The workshop, organized by the High Level Policy Dialogue on Agricultural Biotechnology, will examine the cross-sectoral roles and implications of bio-safety policy on agricultural trade, investment in research, public policy, environment and health safety."
Mr. Artaza said APEC will continue to strengthen counter terrorism preparedness in the region with specific capacity building initiatives included in this year's budget.
"Funding has been allocated to analyze the Counter Terrorism Action Plans of individual Member Economies in order to identify regional capacity-building opportunities.
"This work will be coordinated by the APEC Counter Terrorism Task Force and involve a range a Member Economies, APEC Fora and other regional organizations.
"The ultimate outcome of this work will be to enable a better-coordinated approach to regional counter-terrorism assistance, and to help prevent the duplication of initiatives."
Other projects to be funded in 2005 include vocational training courses for micro and small to medium enterprises affected by the tsunami in Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia, and a capacity building initiative to strengthen energy infrastructure in the Asia-Pacific.
In total funding for 19 projects were approved by the BMC and Member Economies in 2005.
The BMC is made up of representatives of each of APEC's 21 Member Economies and meets twice each year.