Communication from the Republic of Korea

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2004/AMM/010

Agenda Item: XIII

Report on Preparation for Mid-Term Stocktake of the Bogor Goals

Purpose: Consideration

Submitted by: Korea

Forum Doc. No.: 2004/CSOM/018rev1

Report to the 16th APEC Ministerial Meeting on Preparation for Mid-term Stocktake of the Bogor Goals

1. Backgrounds

1. In Shanghai, October 2001, Leaders reaffirmed their strong commitment to achieve free and open trade and investment in the Asia Pacific region. With this vision, APEC Leaders further agreed to conduct a mid-term stocktaking in 2005. In 2003, Ministers agreed that completion of preparations for this mid-term stocktake should be agreed on by the 16th Ministerial Meeting (AMM) 2004. In 2004, at SOM III, based on a proposal made by Korea, Senior Officials agreed on modalities of the stocktake as follows.

1. Agreed modalities

(a)General Principle

1. Mid-term stocktake should be a forward-looking exercise to highlight what APEC has achieved so far and show APEC’s way forward. This Stocktake is an opportunity for APEC to express its strong political will to make its utmost efforts to accomplish free and open trade and investment in the Asia-Pacific region.

(b)Basic Elements on the Modalities

1. This exercise will be undertaken by SOM within the following agreed scope and timelines, and the final results will be delivered to Ministers and to Leaders in 2005.

Steering APEC Fora

Having developed the modality of the mid-term stocktake, SOM will play a leading role in conducting the whole stocktaking process.

Scope of Stocktaking

The scope of the mid-term stocktake will include both what APEC as a whole has achieved and also what individual member economy has contributed to the progress towards the Bogor Goals since 1994.

Timelines

1. Progress in the preparation

1. Having agreed upon the specific timelines and methodology, at SOM II in 2004 SOM further agreed to ask member economies and APEC stakeholders to get actively involved in the preparation for mid-term stocktake:

For the assessment of each economy’s contribution towards the Bogor Goals, each member economy will submit its own evaluation report up to five (5) pages by SOM I in 2005;

For the assessment of APEC’s overall achievement, related stakeholders of APEC such as ABAC, PECC and ASC as well as APEC fora such as CTI, ESC and EC will submit their respective evaluation reports up to twenty (20) pages by SOM I in 2005;

In preparation for the above-mentioned reports, contributions from ECOTECH activities should be duly reflected.

1. SOM intersessionally approved the proposal of establishing a project team utilizing the TILF fund of $69,950. Project overseer economies – Korea and co-sponsor economies, Australia, China, Japan, and Viet Nam – were asked to select experts who would undertake the project. Under SOM’s direction, the project team will carry out the following tasks;

Assist member economies to maintain consistency in their reports;

Collect and compile the reports from member economies, related stakeholders, APEC fora and IAP Peer Review reports;

Make an analysis of all the reports mentioned above;

Prepare a discussion paper for mid-term stocktake symposium (see below);

Make a summary of mid-term stocktake symposium.

1. Future tasks to be completed

1. The following are the list of tasks to be carried out by Senior Officials before and the 17th AMM in 2005.

At 16th AMM in 2004, SOM will make a report on the preparation of the stocktake.

At SOM I in 2005, SOM will approve the details of the symposium on midterm stocktake.

At SOM II in 2005, a symposium will be held among SOM leaders, representatives from ABAC, PECC and ASC, Chairs and Lead Shepherds of APEC fora and internationally renowned APEC experts. The symposium to be organized by Korea and other co-sponsor economies will focus on a framework and elements to be reflected on the final report of mid-term stocktake to AMM and AELM in 2005.

At SOM II in 2005, SOM will establish a SOM steering group whose main task is drafting a final report to AMM and AELM. The steering group will be chaired by SOM Chair and split into several sub-groups which are supposed to draft each designated section of the final report.

At MRT in 2005, SOM will make a report on the progress made to date.

At SOM III in 2005, the steering group will present the first draft of the final report and SOM will make comments on it. The SOM steering group will keep revising the final report reflecting comments from member economies and submit the final version to CSOM in 2005.

1. Composition of the Project Team

1. At CSOM, the project team composed of five (5) experts nominated by overseer economies was approved and mandated to undertake the afore-stated tasks under the supervision of SOM. Those experts are:

Project Team Coordinator

•Dr. Sangkyom Kim, Executive Director, Korean National Center for APEC Studies, Korea Institute for International Economic Policy (KIEP), Korea

Project Team Members

•Ms. Jane Drake-Brockman, Managing Director, Trade and Environment Solutions, Australia;

•Dr. Sheng Bin, Senior Research Staff and Professor, Institute of Economics and APECStudyCenter, Nankai University, China;

•Dr Hikari Ishido, Research Fellow, Institute of Developing Economics, Japan; and

•Ms. Phan Thanh Ha, Deputy Director and Researcher, The Central Institute for Economic Management, Vietnam.

1. Recommendation for Ministers

1. It is recommended that Ministers note the progress of the preparation for the Midterm Stocktake, endorse work plans that Senior Officials put forward to Ministers and state in their Joint Statement that:

“Ministers commended Senior Officials for their work on the preparation for the Mid-term Stocktake of the overall progress towards the Bogor Goals, and endorsed the recommendation on the work program. Ministers instructed Senior Officials to provide a preliminary progress report to the APEC Meeting of Ministers Responsible for Trade in 2005 and bring the final results of the Mid-term Stocktake to the 17th APEC Ministerial Meeting (AMM) so that Ministers may report to Leaders on the final outcomes. They underscored that the result should comprise an assessment on APEC’s progress towards the Bogor Goals based on members’ evaluation, inputs from fora, and stakeholders such as ABAC, ASCC, PECC, and include Senior Officials’ policy recommendations for future activities that need to be taken to achieve the Bogor Goals.”

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