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APEC - Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation

By: EconomyWatch Date: 30 June 2010

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The forum, which was founded in the year 1989, to promote and facilitate cooperation, trade, economic growth and investment between Asia Pacific nations is known as Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation or the APEC. APEC is an intergovernmental forum, which operates on the basis of non binding commitment and open dialog. APEC does not require its participants to have any treaty obligations.

Facts about APEC:

APEC has as many as 21 members. These members are known as “Member Economies”. The “Member Economies” constitute 41 percent of the population world wide, accounts for 56 percent of the world gross domestic product and approximately 49 percent of world trade.

Members of APEC:

Member countries of APEC are as follows:

Vietnam

Thailand

United States of America

Chinese Taipei

Papua New Guinea

Peru

Mexico

New Zealand

Japan

Republic of Philippines

Indonesia

People's Republic of China

Chile

Australia

Canada

Brunei Darussalaam

Republic of Korea

Malaysia

Hong Kong

Singapore

The Russian Federation

Objectives and aims of APEC:

The main purpose of APEC 's inception was to decrease the number of obstacles in trade and also to reduce tariffs across Asia Pacific nations. This in turn created domestic economies, which were efficient. It also gave a boost to export activities in all the APEC countries. The APEC has set its eye on achieving the “Bogor Goals” by the year 2010 for economies, which are industrialized. It has set its target for fulfilling the “Bogor Goals” by the year 2020 in case of developing economies.

These goals are related to open and free trade across all member economies of APEC. The name “Bogor Goals” was adopted because these goals were framed in the 1994 meeting, by different leaders in Bogor, a place in Indonesia.

A brief overview of the “Bogor Goals”:

Investment, trade, which is free and open, facilitates economic growth. It also creates employment opportunities and new vistas open in the field of international trade. On the contrary, industrial inefficiencies as well as rise in prices are consequences of excessive protectionism. By carrying out free and open trade, production cost is greatly reduced and this in turn reduces the cost of services and goods. APEC also looks into the efficient as well as safe movement of services and goods. This is achieved by means of technical cooperation, economic cooperation and policy alignment.

APEC 's mode of operation:

APEC is successful because it believes in respecting the views expressed by the member nations. It operates by encouraging dialogs between member economies. In order to achieve its goals pertaining to free trade, investments and open trade, it takes decisions depending on consensus.

Funding of APEC:

Funding by the different member economies, keeps APEC functioning and aids in carrying out the various activities of APEC.

Achievements of APEC:

From the time, APEC was established in the year 1989, the APEC member economies have been the most active nations as far as economic dynamism is concerned. Within few years of its inception, the different APEC economies together accounted for 70% of the growth in the economy world wide. All the APEC member nations surpassed the other economies of the world. This was true, even during the period, when Asia was going through financial crisis. APEC has managed to streamline economies of the member nations.