South Korean President Lee Myung-bak has just returned home from the 2009 APEC summit in Singapore after an impressive photo session with Asia-Pacific leaders in the host’s traditional costume.

At the meeting, President Lee said he would act as a bridge between APEC and the G20 as next year’s chair of the group of the world’s bigger economies. He stressed that developed nations should listen to what developing and emerging countries have to say and that APEC should be instrumental in implementing the G20 agreements on global coordination in crisis exit policies and the prevention of trade protectionism.

Lee made a significant contribution to the conference of 21 heads of government as quite a few points of emphasis in his remarks were reflected in the final statement of the two-day summit. Among them was his push for establishing a Free Trade Area of Asia-Pacific (FTAAP), which was jointly studied by Korea, Australia and New Zealand. His “inclusive growth strategy” to provide the vulnerable sectors with better economic opportunities was recognised as a model of balanced growth.

The APEC Leaders Statement charted a “new growth paradigm” which envisaged “balanced, inclusive and sustainable” growth to ensure a durable recovery that will create jobs and benefit the region’s large population. For inclusive growth, “we will help small and medium enterprises and women entrepreneurs gain better access to global markets and finance”, the statement said.

The 3,000-word summary of the annual summit covered a variety of issues raised in the talks. They included an early conclusion of the Doha Development Agenda negotiations under the World Trade Organisation, resisting protectionism, fighting corruption and accelerating regional economic integration—through achieving the 1994 declaration in Bogor, Indonesia. Finally, the statement emphasised the task of revitalising APEC.

Among the above agenda, strengthening APEC must be the most important topic should its members agree that it is a worthy forum of the vast Pacific basin nations. Two decades after it was formed, APEC has yet to clearly define its function and prove its usefulness. The Leaders’ Statement exhibited strenuous preparation by the APEC secretariat in Singapore—which will now have an executive director for the first time—but it contained few substantial agreements—and little review of achievement.

As for the Bogor goals aiming at free and open trade and investment by 2010 for industrialised economies and by 2020 for developing nations, the 2009 APEC summit directed ministers to report next year with an assessment of how industrialised APEC members have approached those goals.

Since Bogor, this region has undergone two devastating economic crises and APEC should by now acknowledge that the goals set up 15 years ago have very little meaning under the current environment of bilateral and multilateral free trade agreements.

Within APEC, a study on the Free Trade Area of Asia Pacific is in progress, seeing significant economic benefits from such a regional arrangement. The APEC leaders again asked ministers and officials to make a report next year on the possible pathways to achieve FTAAP. A question is raised as to how this process can fit into the Bogor goals.

Upon its inauguration in Canberra in 1989, APEC aimed to facilitate “economic growth, cooperation, trade and investment in the Asia-Pacific region”. Yet, we are not sure how responsive and effective APEC is as a “premier forum for economic cooperation”. And we hope President Lee would still find his attendance at the 2009 APEC Summit was worth his absence from the presidential office. (The Korea Herald/ Asia News Network)