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| Singapore received positive feedback for hosting APEC |
| 23 Nov 2009 |
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Singapore has received strong positive feedback over its hosting of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation meetings.
And Foreign Minister George Yeo said the successful organisation and execution of the event has enhanced Singapore's reputation in the international community.
Giving his assessment in parliament, he noted that the meetings were very well-attended, and that there was a hopefulness among the leaders for the future of the grouping:
"The overall mood was positive and upbeat with broad agreement on the fundamentals. There was a full turnout of APEC leaders which underscored the importance that they placed on APEC.... We received good feedback on the CEO summit which was one of the largest, if not the largest ever. 14 leaders participated in the CEO summit. "
On the impact of APEC initiatives on trade, Mr Yeo pointed out that while agreements reached were non-binding, their impacts were comparable to that of a free trade agreement.
This, he said, is largely due to peer pressure and peer competition:
"In particular, there was broad agreement on re-orientating our growth strategies to adress the challenges of climate change, globalisation and macroeconomic imbalances. There was also a clear stance rejecting all forms of protectionism. And we reaffirmded out commitment to conclude the Doha development agenda in 2010. We continued to hold high the Bogor goals of free trade and investment in the region.
One concrete example is the common target agreed upon by APEC leaders to make it 25 per cent cheaper, faster and easier to do business within the region by 2015. "
This would mean time and cost savings in areas such as starting a business, and processing trade documents.
Responding to a question on the benefits Singapore and its business community could reap from the mega-event, Mr Yeo said he believed that despite some inconveniences to the public, the positives still outweighed the negatives:
"If we are to be a conference city there are bound to be such inconveniences from time to time affecting taxi drivers, affecting shops, affecting Singaporeans who live in the city area. But I believe that on the whole there is general recognition that all this global limelight on us redounds to a much larger and greater advantage and in the end it means more peple coming here, more people respecting our ability to organise and do things in an efficient, simple and practical way. And it will in the end lead to more investments and jobs. I think on the whole the positive feedback drown out the few negative comments that we've received. "
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