Business will be a breeze, if Apec meets its targets

Business will be a breeze, if Apec meets its targets

S’pore to spearhead drive to new 25% target, focusing on five priority areas

By LEE U-WEN

WITHIN six years, companies can look forward to saving up to US$450 when importing or exporting a container of goods.

Keep trade and investment free and open: Mr Lim (with Mr Yeo, right) said yesterday that ‘there is still a temptation to resort to trade-restrictive measures in order to placate or solve some of these unemployment issues, so there is a need for vigilance’
It will also cost US$500 less to start a business, and bosses can expect to get their new venture up and running a week earlier and resolve contract disputes three months sooner compared to today.

These were some specific examples cited by trade and foreign ministers from the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) grouping as they detailed their new region- wide target of making it 25 per cent cheaper, faster and easier to do business by 2015.

An interim target to make improvements by 5 per cent has been set for 2011, the ministers said in a wide-ranging joint declaration statement. The Asia-Pacific region as a whole has already seen trade transaction costs fall by 3.2 per cent from 2006-08, on top of the 5 per cent cut achieved from 2002-06.

Singapore, which is chairing this year’s Apec meetings, will spearhead the drive towards the new 25 per cent target and will focus on five priority areas: starting a business; getting credit; enforcing contracts; trading across borders; and dealing with permits.

In terms of cutting down on the number of steps a company has to deal with, the new targets aim, for instance, to remove five procedures to obtain a construction permit, and nine steps to settle a contract dispute.

‘The atmosphere in which these targets are set and member economies try to achieve them is quite unlike traditional trade negotiations which are sometimes seen as ‘you win, I lose’,’ said Singapore’s Foreign Minister George Yeo at a media conference yesterday.

He noted how Apec economies are not bound by specific targets because of the ‘collegial’ nature of the grouping and the discussions. ‘There is instead a very interesting peer dynamic for each trying to be as good as the next person,’ he said. ‘Economies are quite willing to help less developed ones.’

To kick-start things and help nudge other economies along, seven ‘champion economies’ have volunteered to build capacity in the five priority areas. They are the United States, Singapore, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong and China.

The ministers also stressed that while the global economic situation has ‘eased considerably’ and world GDP is estimated to rise by nearly 3 per cent next year, the recovery will ‘remain fragile’ and growth over the next few quarters is likely to be uneven.

‘Unemployment remains unacceptably high in many of our economies,’ they said in the statement. ‘We will work together and with other international fora to ensure that the recovery does not stall and to lay a foundation for growth that is inclusive, balanced and sustainable, supported by innovation and a knowledge-based economy, and anchored on Apec’s core agenda to promote free and open trade and investment.’

‘There is still a temptation to resort to trade-restrictive measures in order to placate or solve some of these unemployment issues, so there is a need for vigilance,’ said Singapore’s Trade and Industry Minister Lim Hng Kiang.

‘More importantly, there is a need for exit mechanisms for some of these measures - to make sure that even if they are temporary measures taken because of the severity of this crisis, there are clear steps how to withdraw them when things revert to more normal conditions.’

Source : Business Times - 13 November 2009

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