A senior official at Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) said on Monday that the bloc would support Indonesia's intention to use the goals made by Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), Bogor Declaration, as the guidelines in the upcoming 2013 APEC summit scheduled to be held in Indonesia.
The Bogor Declaration was resulted in 1994 APEC Summit held in Indonesia's city of Bogor. It contains guidelines to a more integrated economy among APEC members by 2020. As the host country, Indonesia would be the chair of APEC next year.
"Yes of course, we would support it. The most important thing is implementing steps aimed at propelling world's economy. As we already knew the world has been seeing ensuing economy crisis until now," Makarim Wibisono, chairman of ASEAN Foundation, told Xinhua on the sidelines of a seminar discussing role of regional organizations in promoting peace held here.
Makarim added that by promoting Bogor Declaration as the guidelines in the upcoming APEC Summit is expected to make APEC members taking more opening stances, concrete actions in paving the way for fairer trades in the region.
As the chair of APEC next year, Indonesia expects that under the Bogor framework, APEC members will further strengthen free trade and investment by reducing barriers to ease the flows of goods, services and capital in the region. Indonesia would highlight the achievement of sustainable growth with equity as a goal set for APEC economies, earlier reports said.
APEC was established in 1989, now comprising 21 economies in the Asia-Pacific region, accounting for 40 percent of the world's population, 54 percent of the world's gross domestic product (GDP) and 44 percent of global trade.
Regarding the conduction of the upcoming APEC Summit, Indonesia will host a number of senior officials, ministerial-level meetings. The apex of the summit is slated on Oct. 7-8 next year in Indonesia's leisure island of Bali.
Critics have questioned the role of APEC, because it has no clear and measurable targets. During the APEC Summit in Vladivostok, Russia, in September, leaders embraced a deal to include 54 environmental goods on a list of products subject to import duty reduction by 2015. Endi
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