8
ESC Chair’s Report
28 May 2004
Pucón, Chile
The twentieth meeting of the SOM Committee on ECOTECH (ESC) was held in Pucón, Chile on the 28th May 2004. It was attended by representatives from Australia; Brunei, Canada; Chile; China; Hong Kong, China; Indonesia; Japan; Korea; Malaysia; Mexico; New Zealand; Papua New Guinea; Peru; Philippines; Singapore; Chinese Taipei; Thailand; US; and Viet Nam. The Lead Shepherd of the SME Working Group, Chair of the Gender Focal Point Network (GFPN), and the APEC Secretariat also attended as did the representative of the ABAC.
Ambassador Juan Carlos Capuñay of Peru chaired the meeting.
I. Opening Remarks by the Chair
1. The Chair welcomed the new ESC Coordinator, Mr. Soonthorn Chaiyindeepum, Director (Program), and thanked Ms. Anita Douglas for her excellent work and contribution to the ESC during the past three years. Ms. Anita Douglas was assigned as a new Coordinator for the Counter-Terrorism Task Force (CTTF).
2. He also welcomed Mr. Tony Prescott, Program Manager, Asia Regional Section, Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID), as a new Chair of the Small Group on Evaluation and ESC delegate from Australia.
3. The Chair stated that participation of the private sector was integral to the successful realization of ESC’s goals. As such, the ABAC Chair or his representative was invited to participate in the ESC meeting with a view to having a closer collaboration on a mutually benefitial project.
2. Adoption of the Agenda
4. The Draft Annotated Agenda (Document 2004/SOMII/ESC/001) was reviewed. Chile wished to have the Chair of the Gender Focal Point Network (GFPN) to brief the meeting on the preparations for the Women Leaders Network (WLN) to be held in September 2004. This was in conjunction with the presentation by the Lead Shepherd of SMEWG on Plan of Action on Strengthening Coordination with the SMEWG. China wished to report progress on the Regional Integration for Sustainable Economies (RISE) Project. It was agreed that this be considered as part of the agenda item on sustainable development. The Chair suggested that a communications and outreach program with the APEC Secretariat be considered under item 5 on Coordination and Management. The meeting agreed with the above amendment and a revised annotated agenda (Document No. 2003/SOMII/ESC/001rev.1) was adopted.
3. Business Arrangements
5. The Chair and the Secretariat briefed members on the business arrangements for the meeting.
4. Reporting on Progress and Outcomes of Key Directives
1) 2004 Tasking
a) Preparations for the second APEC/IFI Roundtable
6. The Chair recalled the first APEC/IFI Roundtable held last year as a successful event with a tangible outcome in terms of collaboration between APEC and the World Bank’s Global Development Learning Network (GDLN). The APEC Secretariat further informed that a Letter of Intent between the APEC Secretariat and the World Bank would be completed pending the signing by the World Bank’s Regional Vice President, East Asia and the Pacific. The pilot cooperation projects this year will involve the utilization of GDLN’s facility to expand the benefits of seminar and training on electronic commerce and trade facilitation to a wider audience.
7. The second APEC/IFI Roundtable could build upon the success of the first one by focusing on a specific agenda that leads to tangible outcomes. At the last ESC meeting, two areas, namely SME development and education were endorsed as possible themes for the second Roundtable. These two areas are complementary as foreign language capacity becomes an essential tool for the Small and Medium enterprises to gain access to markets, technology and capital. Thus, promoting the capacity building of Small and Medium enterprises in using English and other languages for business would help integrate them into the formal sector and eventually the global economy. At the second ABAC meeting in Chinese Taipei, these two areas were also chosen by the ABAC’s Capacity Building Working Group (CBWG) as their priorities this year. This reflected a common view that fully supports the priorities of the Chilean year. On that basis, a theme of “Development of Knowledge-based Economy for SME” was suggested.
8. The Lead Shepherd of the SMEWG also suggested three possible areas of cooperation with IFIs, namely the support in SME project management, sharing studies and researches on SMEs, and the creation of an APEC Fund for Micro Enterprises.
9. Pending the agenda of the second Roundtable, the meeting noted that a presentation on the ESC’s work to strengthen the implementation of projects through the revised evaluation frameworks would also be useful to attract funding of IFIs and the private sector.
10. Members agreed that the second Roundtable should not be just a discussion with no concrete or tangible outcome. It was important to have a tangible outcome presented to the APEC Ministerial and Leaders Meetings that enhances the credibility of the ESC. A well prepared approach and identification of specific areas for cooperation were essential to effectively engage IFIs. This demand side should correspond to the interest, resource availability and expertise of the IFIs in order to reach a concrete outcome of collaboration. One member proposed that a list of potential cooperation areas/projects that reflects APEC’s goals and priorities be compiled and used to approach appropriate IFIs. To move the preparations forward, a suggestion was made to establish a small group within the ESC to work out the agenda and approach that could effectively engage International Financial Institutions (IFIs) into the second Roundtable.
11. The meeting agreed that a small group comprising the ESC Chair, Chile, Chinese Taipei, New Zealand, Thailand, Viet Nam, the Lead Shepherds of the SMEWG and HRDWG, Chair of the Gender Focal Point Network (GFPN) and the APEC Secretariat will work intersessionally to develop the draft program as well as agenda for the second Roundtable. Chile, as chair of the small group, would circulate a draft proposal within 20 days after the MRT meeting for consideration by the group. Australia also volunteered to be a member of the small group.
12. The meeting exchanged views on the list of participants and concurred that the exact theme and agenda for the Roundtable would facilitate the selection of appropriate participants. However, it was agreed that the invitees could include the representative of the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), and the United Nations (UN). Within APEC, all Senior Officials as well as Lead Shepherds of Working Groups, representatives of ABAC, PECC and ASC would be invited.
13. Chile reiterated its full commitment to hosting the second APEC/IFI Roundtable during SOM III in September 2004 and would work closely with the ESC to make the Roundtable a success. The date for the second Roundtable would be advised by the Secretariat subject to the confirmation by the host economy.
b) Plan of Action on Strengthening Coordination with the SMEWG
14. Mr. Francisco Javier Troncoso, Lead Sherpherd of the SME Working Group, briefed the meeting about the proposed Plan of Action on Strengthening Coordination with the SMEWG (Document No. 2004/SOMII/ESC/013). The Plan of Action was aimed at strengthening coordination between the SMEWG and other working groups/fora through network of contact points in each working group/fora and economy.
15. The meeting appreciated the SMEWG for its inititiative and endorsed the Plan of Action on Strengthening Coordination with the SMEWG to be submitted to SOM and BMC for consideration.
16. Madame Maria de la Luz Silva Donoso, the Chair of the Gender Focal Point Network (GFPN), briefed the meeting on the preparations for the Women Leaders Network (WLN) to be held in September 2004 in La Serena. The theme of the meeting will focus on empowering women in SME and Micro Enterprises.
2) Sustainable Development
17. Chile outlined the steps to revitalize APEC’s cross-sectoral approach to sustainable development with the integration of issues such as fisheries and marine resources conservation, tourism, mining and SMEs into a single approach coordinated by the ESC. With the comments provided by members after its first presentation in the last ESC meeting, Chile had revised its proposal and presented a paper on Sustainable Development APEC 2004 (Document No. 2004/SOMII/ESC/005). A three-tier approach was proposed through a creation of a task force or small group to review the cross-cutting work on sustainable development in APEC and identify areas and linkage where APEC can add value in future work on sustainable development. The small group will then be supported by an APEC-funded project to study on a cross-cuting theme that has been presented in different sectors and working groups. The third tier was a proposal for the second Ministerial Meeting on Sustainable Development to be convened in 2006.
18. Chile then proposed a project proposal on Voluntary Initiatives for Sustainable Production, Trade and Consumption Chains (Document No. 2004/SOMII/ESC/006) as part of the second tier to support the review and analysis of cross-cutting issues relevant to sustainable development. The project consists of a background study, a workshop to identify some key cross-sectoral aspects that require attention and a website to disseminate good practices.
19. Members considered that a review of what has been implemented since the first Ministerial Meeting on Sustainable Development in 1996 in Manila is necessary given the changing and interweaving nature of the issues affecting sustainable development. One member suggested that the linkage of trade and development could also be studied, for example, assessing the impact of industrial relocation in APEC as a result of rising wage and environmental costs. Others suggested that the issue of fisheries and forestry be included as it is an important sector in many developing member economies. Some also suggested that the SME would be an instrumental vehicle for sustainable growth in the future.
20. On the proposed second Ministerial Meeting in 2006, members agreed that this was a subsequent issue that could be considered when the agenda and the expected outcomes of the meeting were clear.
21. In connection with this issue, Indonesia circulated a paper on APEC Workshop on Trade and Sustinable use of Biodiversity (Document 2004/SOMII/ESC/012) held in March 2004 in Indonesia for information. China also reported the progress on the implementation of the Regional Integration for Sustainable Economies (RISE) project in Jiangmen city, China, which was established with the collaboration between the PECC Food and Agriculture Forum and the APEC’s Infrastructure Workshop (later changed its name to Group on Economic Infrastructure).
22. The meeting endorsed the inclusion of the issue on sustainable development into the ESC Work Plan for 2004. A proposal to establish a task force or small group was also endorsed. Chile agreed to act as the lead economy and comprises Australia, Indonesia, Canada, and the Philippines. China also volunteered to be part of this small group.
23. The meeting agreed to study Chile’s proposal on Sustainable Deveopment APEC 2004 with a view to formally approving it and endorsing the project proposal by the next ESC meeting in Santiago. A clarification on the issues related to trade such as social environment, certification, labeling and tariff differentiation which appear in the paper was also sought.
5. Coordination and Management
1) Developing effective partnerships with stakeholders such as civil society, business and academia
24. The Chair updated the meeting on his recent meeting with ABAC in Chinese Taipei during 11-14 May 2004.
25. Mr. Rene Muga E., Executive Director of CEO Summit 2004, who represents the ABAC Chair, briefed the meeting on the collaboration between ABAC and the ESC. The ABAC through its Capacity Building Working Group (CBWG) has been the counterpart of the ESC in promoting capacity building activities in ABAC. He outlined the priorities of CBWG as comprising the institutional capacity building to enhance policy coherence between health and trade officials in APEC, organizational capacity building in the services sector to promote SME development, and human capacity building in the development of an APEC Business School Network (ABSN) with a view to promoting the use of English as the language of business. In its interim report to be submitted to the MRT Meeting, ABAC will focus on the capacity building to face the challenge of globalization and seek the support for the development of an ABSN.
26. The meeting expressed an appreciation to ABAC for its closer collaboration with the ESC and was pleased to see that the priorities of the CBWG are similar to that of the ESC. Both expressed the determination to working closely in advancing the two areas of SME and Education in the second Roundtable in SOM III.
27. The APEC Secretariat was invited to share its views on the communications and outreach program for ECOTECH activities. Ms. Sheryl Lowe, Director (Communications and Public Affairs) briefed the meeting on the work done by the communications team to disseminate the benefits of APEC to its stakeholders. Two approaches are currently deployed though the integrated communication network of communications contact points and the improvements of its business outreach and communication products including e-publication. With the upcoming APEC/IFI Roundtable, the APEC Secretariat will work closely with the ESC to convey the tangible benefits arising from the Roundtable, especially on promoting SME development and Education to the public.
28. One member suggested that telling a story about its tangible benefits to stakeholders would be one of the effective communication tools and cited a publication on Making APEC Matter through ECOTECH produced by Thailand in the past as an example. The meeting was also told that at the level of SMEWG, networking among chambers of commerce and small and medium enterprises was also established. There will also be an APEC Business Networking session held during the APEC SMEs Ministerial Meeting in October 2004.
29. As a follow up on this matter, the Chair informed that he would hold a meeting with the APEC Secretariat’s communications team to discuss the outreach in more details including the communications strategy for the second Roundtable. The meeting took note of the ongoing collaboration with ABAC and appreciated the efforts by the APEC Secretariat to enhance its pro-active communications and outreach program for ECOTECH activities.
2) ECOTECH Evaluation
a) Trial of the Evaluation Frameworks for APEC Projects to be implemented in 2005