Preface

Summary

The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation's (APEC) momentum heightened in 1993–96. In 1993 in Seattle, the United States hosted the first APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting. In 1994 in Bogor, Indonesia, the leaders issued the ambitious statement of “the industrialized economies achieving the goal of free and open trade and investment no later than the year 2010 and developing economies no later than the year 2020”. The Osaka Action Agenda was adopted in 1995 and the Manila Framework was adopted in 1996. However, ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) and other Asian members were hit severely by the East Asian currency crisis in 1997–98, while APEC's liberalization agenda turned out to be much less than had been expected. Both leaders' meetings and ministerial meetings have continued to be held in one of the APEC member economies in autumn every year, but the media only report the leaders' statements. APEC has developed a pragmatic agenda for regional econ mic cooperation focusing on business facilitation and has achieved steady expansion of trade and investment in the region through its second decade.

Globalization has continued in terms of money, business, and people. While trying to overcome the current world financial crisis, all economies need to cooperate on such new global issues as global warming, pandemics, poverty, and human security. The G-20 Summit emerged in 2008 as a new global consultation forum for global governance, in addition to the United Nations, International Monetary Fund, World Bank, World Trade Organization, and World Health Organization, while APEC and other regional cooperation bodies are expected to supplement them.

APEC was hosted by Singapore in 2009, Japan in 2010, and will be hosted by the United States in 2011. It expects capable hosts to successfully tackle the new challenges in the beginning of its third decade. Japan took the lead in the assessment of the mid-term achievement of the Bogor Goals in 2010 and paved the way towards the Free Trade Area of the AsiaPacific Region (FTAAP). With strengthened U.S. engagement, negotiationsamong nine APEC members for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) beganin 2010. Following Singapore's lead in addressing the desirable attributesfor growth in the region, Yokohama APEC announced the APEC GrowthStrategy as the post-Bogor agenda.