The Seoul APEC Declaration, which outlined the objectives of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation at its adoption in November 1991, states that one of the major objectives of APEC is "to sustain the growth and development of the region for the common good of its peoples and, in this way, to contribute to the growth and development of the world economy." APEC is currently engaging in the process of liberalizing and facilitating regional trade and investment as one important means to this end, but this in itself is no magic wand. Wide-ranging economic and technical cooperation is also needed to enhance the region's growthe potential by promoting mutual assistance and improving member economies' ability to meet the new economic challenges posed by the changing economic environment. In this spirit, in the Bogor Declaration of 1994, there are clear statements calling for enhancement of cooperation.
Currently, economic and technical cooperation in the various APEC activities can be classified into two conceptual channels of cooperation.
The first category of cooperation aims both to identify and remove bottlenecks and also to create bases for the sustainable economic development of the region, Currently, this objective is being pursued in the 10 Working Groups (on Trade and Investment Data Review, Trade Promotion, Industrial Science and Technology, Human Resources Development, Regional Energy Cooperation, Marine Resources Conservation, Telecommunications, Transportation, Tourism, and Fisheries), as well as in the various areas where consideration is being given to economic and technical cooperation projects in such sectors as small and medium enterprises, agricultural techniques, and the environment. During this year, these Working Groups have focused on creating Action Programs which span the medium and long term, and the essence of these Action Programs is to be incorporated into the Action Agenda to be adopted in Osaka.
Secoudly, there is the channel of supporting directly trade and investment liberalization and facilitation through such measures as human resources development. Here, as well, a wide range of economic and technical cooperation programs are being considered and implemented across such areas as customs procedures, standards and conformance, intellectual property rights, government procurement, competition policy, Uruguay Round implementation, and others.
In view of the diversity of the Asia-Pacific region, Japan believes that advancing economic and technical cooperation and promoting trade and investment liberalization and facilitation should go hand in hand, with a view to maintaining high economic growth and prosperity.
Specifically, Japan believes that within APEC, economic and technical coopertion must be advanced along the two tracks of mutual assistance and policy dialogue. APEC economies will conduct economic and technical cooperation not on the basis of the conventional donor-recipient cooperation framework, but on that of mutual assistance and equal partnership.
It is from this perspective that Japan put forward its proposal for Partners for Progress(PFP). This concept proposes a framework for more effectively and mote efficiently advancing economic and technical cooperation across the whole spectrum of economic sectors, on the basis of mutual assistance and voluntarism. In view of the need to promptly advance liberalization and facilitaion of trade and investment, it would initially be appropriate to focus on this sector and implement specific projects to achieve this end.
At various APEC fora, ranging from leaders' meetings to experts' meetings, APEC economies will also pursue policy dialogue on wide ranging economic issues with a view to exchanging and sharing knowledge, experiences and information.
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