Summary Report - First Senior Officials’ Meeting – Plenary Session 2010

FOR THE TWENTY-SECOND APEC MINISTERIAL MEETING

23 February 2010

Chairs’ Summary Conclusions

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OPENING REMARKS

The first Senior Officials‟ Meeting (SOM) for the Twenty-Second APEC Ministerial Meeting was convened in Hiroshima, Japan on 23 February 2010. Senior Officials from Australia; Brunei Darussalam, Canada; Chile; the People‟s Republic of China; Hong Kong, China; Indonesia; Japan; Republic of Korea, Malaysia; Mexico; New Zealand; Papua New Guinea; Peru; the Republic of the Philippines; Russia; Singapore; Chinese Taipei; Thailand; the United States and Viet Nam participated in the meeting. The Chairs of the Budget and Management Committee (BMC), Committee on Trade and Investment (CTI), Economic Committee (EC), SOM Steering Committee on ECOTECH (SCE), the ABAC representative, the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (PECC) and the APEC Secretariat were present. II ADOPTION OF THE AGENDA AND BUSINESS ARRANGEMENTS

SOM Chairs said the SOM Plenary would take formal decisions on what was discussed during the Retreat. SOM Plenary would also hear updates on other ongoing work not discussed during the Retreat. The agenda was adopted with no objection or comments.

III SUPPORTING THE MULTILATERAL TRADING SYSTEM

SOM noted that they had a frank discussion at the working lunch held during the Retreat on support for the multilateral trading system and resisting protectionism.

IV APEC 2010 Priorities and the draft Vision (Regional Economic Integration, Growth

Strategy, Human Security)

SOM Chairs summarized discussions at SOM Retreat, and presented a draft paper on “Change and Action – Key Priorities for APEC 2010: Key Outcomes of SOM1 Discussion & SOM‟s Instruction to Committees/Sub-fora/Working Groups” (2010/SOM1/002). After revising the draft, SOM adopted the final version of the foregoing paper (2010/SOM1/002/rev2). The paper laid out key priorities for APEC2010 and SOM‟s instructions to relevant APEC subfora reflecting the discussion in the SOM Retreat.

The paper also covered Japan‟s preliminary idea on APEC‟s NEW VISION, the elements of which are: Regional Economic Integration; New Growth Strategy; and Human Security/Secure APEC, all of which are supported by Capacity Building and Technical Cooperation. SOM also agreed that they would continue to work on the issues towards MRT, AMM and AELM.

Suggestions on growth strategy provided by Senior Officials in the discussion over the forgoing paper included: SOM should work closely with the Senior Finance Officials‟ Meeting (SFOM) process and with relevant international organizations and G20; the growth strategy should be seen as a means to achieve the goal of high quality growth; should avoid siloing the different types of growth as they have clear overlaps; secure growth should also be considered as a part of our high quality growth vision; providing a clearer description of the Growth Strategy would be required so that APEC fora could be properly instructed by SOM; a need for a leader-like, lofty, and concise statement on the growth strategy;; the Strategy and action plan should concentrate on areas that play to APEC‟s competitive strengths and “APEC Growth Strategy (Target Deliverables and Related Works) (2009/ISOM/011)” should be used as a reference tool, but not dogmatically applied. V BOGOR GOALS

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SOM noted that at SOM Retreat they discussed the first draft/outline of the assessment report on the achievement of the Bogor Goals (see 2010/SOM/R/002) prepared by the SOM Chairs as well as the PSU‟s paper on Progressing Towards the APEC Bogor Goals-Perspectives of the APEC PSU (2010/SOM/R/003) and that SOM noted the two documents could form a good basis for developing a credible analytical report that would withstand the scrutiny of the general public and international community.

SOM agreed that Japan would further develop the draft toward the SOM2/MRT, taking into account the views expressed by member economies, and that Japan will keep in close contact with the Senior Officials in developing the draft and if need be, will convene a meeting in advance of SOM2/MRT for the Senior Officials to have a detailed discussion on this important exercise.

SOM welcomed the announcements by Korea, Mexico and Peru to join the 2010 group of economies for the Bogor Goal assessment and encouraged other economies to consider participating in the 2010 assessment too.

VI Economic and Technical Cooperation (ECOTECH)

SOM noted the report of the Chair of the SOM Steering Committee on ECOTECH (SCE) on the SCE 2010 workplan. SOM also noted the report of the Executive Director (ED) of the APEC Secretariat on the 2010 workplan of the SCE fora.

SOM endorsed the document “Strengthening Economic and Technical Cooperation in APEC” that includes the ECOTECH Framework and recommendations to strengthen SCE processes.

SOM Chairs urged SCE to carry on the discussion on ECOTECH in its meeting to be held on 23 – 24 February 2010.

VII APEC REFORM

SOM noted that the Senior Officials discussed at SOM Retreat two issues with regard to APEC reform: the review of the Policy Support Unit (PSU) led by Japan; and the review of APEC‟s organizational structure led by Australia.

With regards to the review of the PSU, Japan noted that it had held, with the support of the PSU Board, a PSU Review Group meeting. Japan indicated that member economies supported the extension of the PSU mandate, but financing the PSU remained an issue. As for funding source, most economies supported voluntary contributions to the PSU, as well as funding for specific projects. Japan reiterated the need to reach a decision on PSU mandate and funding by SOM2/ MRT.

The United States and Australia indicated that they were each willing to provide financial support of USD400,000 to the PSU. Australia encouraged all APEC economies to think about what sort of contribution they could make to fund the PSU and noted that broader based support for the PSU would be helpful for economies seeking funds to contribute to the PSU. Singapore committed to its ongoing support for the PSU in terms of rental support/ accommodation as well as privilege and immunity support for PSU staff. Singapore noted voluntary contributions in cash were the neatest way to contribute to the PSU, but suggested other ways economies could contribute.

SOM agreed that the PSU mandate issue should be resolved by SOM2/MRT in June. With regard to funding of the PSU, the Chairs suggested voluntary contributions should be primarily pursued. Based on the acknowledgment of the PSU‟s achievements, the Chairs encouraged all economies to think about possible substantive contributions to the PSU.

With regard to the review of APEC‟s organizational structure (2010/SOM1/R/021) led by Australia, SOM agreed to continue to consider how APEC could be better structured to more effectively support economic recovery, drive sustainable growth and meet the challenges of the region in the next 20 years. VIII BUDGET AND OTHER MANAGEMENT ISSUES

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The BMC Chair highlighted to the Senior Officials the proposed work priorities of the BMC for 2010. The key priorities were –

Strengthening budget management and oversight of the Secretariat‟s budget, including implementation of recommendations approved by the Senior Officials to improve the long term fiscal viability of APEC; continuing with project management reform, including developing high level project reform agenda; improving project preparation and assessment; and tightening up project implementation, monitoring and evaluation.

SOM noted the proposed priorities of BMC.

The ED briefed the Senior Officials on APEC Secretariat‟s 2010 Operational Plan (2010/SOM1/005) and the APEC Secretariat 3 Year Strategic Plan (2011-2013) (2010/SOM1/006) and highlighted the key strategic directions of the Secretariat in the next few years.

The United States, the Philippines, Australia and Singapore welcomed the well thought-out and clear plans presented by ED. Australia considered the BMC the appropriate forum to oversee the Secretariat‟s strategic development and budget-related issues.

The ED noted that the Secretariat would consider appropriate measures to gauge feedback on the effectiveness of its strategies.

SOM approved the APEC Secretariat‟s 2010 Operational Plan and the 2011-2013 Strategic Plan.

SOM noted the PSU Annual Report 2009 under this agenda item.

IX OTHER BUSINESS

i. APEC fora participation in non-APEC events and joint activities with non-members

The ED informed SOM that although the current Guidelines on Non-Member Participation in APEC Activities make clear the situation for non-member participation in the activities of APEC, they do not deal with APEC fora‟s participation in non-APEC activities and joint activities with non-members (2010/SOM1/007).

To address this gap, the APEC Secretariat proposed to draft supplementary guidelines to govern outgoing participation of APEC fora.

SOM agreed that the Secretariat will draft and circulate revised guidelines intersessionally.

ii. Preparations for Sectoral Ministerial Meetings outside Japan

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China updated SOM on plans for the 5 APEC Human Resource Development Ministerial Meeting to be held in Beijing on 16-17 September 2010.

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Peru updated SOM on arrangements for the 3 APEC Oceans-related Ministerial Meeting (AOMM) and related meetings.

The Fisheries Working Group (FWG) will meet in Lima on 21-23 June 2010. The Marine Resources Conservation WG (MRCWG) will also meet in Lima on the same dates. A joint meeting of the FWG and MRCWG will be held in Lima on 24 June 2010.

Preparatory meetings for the AOMM will take place in Paracas on 8 - 10 October, 2010and the AOMM itself will take place in Paracas on the 11 - 12 October, 2010. The themes of the AOMM are aligned with APEC‟s human security priorities for the year: (1) Food security (2) Climate change, and (3) Ecosystem based management.

iii. APEC’s Communications and Outreach Strategy

The ED stated that the APEC Secretariat has been implementing the Branding Strategy. The new APEC positioning statement, tagline and mission statement have been rolled out, and a Communications Toolkit has been provided to Ministers, Senior Officials, Senior Finance Officials and

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ABAC members to help them conduct outreach activities in phase 1.The ED asked Senior Officials and ABAC members to commence outreach activities in each economy as „Ambassadors for APEC.‟

Canada suggested that the informal group meet on the margins of SOM2 in Sapporo to review how Senior Officials have fared in terms of outreach and whether further support from the Secretariat is required. The ED expressed the Secretariat‟s support for Canada‟s proposal.

SOM welcomed the initiative of the ED.

iv. Acknowledgment of “For information” items and Other Matters

Aid-for-trade

Australia proposed that SOM holding a policy dialogue on Aid-for-Trade (AFT) on the margins of SOM2/MRT in June 2010. SOM were instructed to provide comments on the proposal to Australia.

ABAC presentation on labour mobility

ABAC Chair noted that the study, “Facilitating temporary labour mobility in the APEC region, opportunities and challenges,” provides evidence that many APEC economies are faced with competitive challenges with respect to talent management. For this reason, ABAC included a recommendation on improving labour arrangements in their report to Leaders in 2009 and would be undertaking further work in 2010.

SOM thanked ABAC for the recommendation and noted that SOM would be waiting for the formal recommendations from ABAC during the AELM later in the year.

Pacific Economic Cooperation Council

SOM noted the update provided by the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (PECC) (2010/SOM1/011), and SOM thanked the PECC for its update.

Chinese Taipei’s contribution

Chinese Taipei invited Senior Officials to attend the ceremony for the signing of an Memorandum Of Understanding between Chinese Taipei and the APEC Secretariat, whereby Chinese Taipei would be donating USD1 million to the APEC Support Fund (USD500,000 for the Human Security Sub-Fund and USD500,000 for the Energy Efficiency Sub-Fund).

v. Classification of documents.

SOM agreed on the Document Classification List (2010/SOM1/000).

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