[4]  The message of the 1996 ABAC Report

In this report, we build upon the twin themes of this year's APEC meetings: APEC means business and building the spirit of community. We underscore the need for policy reforms to help business expand regional trade and investment activities. We emphasize the benefits of a stronger public-private sector partnership in promoting the liberalization and facilitation of trade and investment, as well as of economic and technical cooperation.

We affirm that the three pillars of APEC -- liberalization, facilitation, and economic and technical cooperation -- are inextricably linked to each other. We believe that the voluntary nature of APEC is one of its great strengths, and that the benefits gained by those who practice leadership by example will encourage other members to follow. Building on these realities, we propose measures in this report that address concerns in five key areas: cross-border flows, finance and investment, infrastructure, small and medium enterprise development and human resources development, and economic and technical cooperation.

In support of APEC's current efforts to promote cross-border flows in a number of areas, we examine ways to help create that large and dynamic regional base that APEC's enterprises need to remain globally competitive in the coming century. We identify concrete measures to reduce and eventually eliminate border restrictions, promote human resources development and small enterprises, and create a policy environment conducive to the growth of cross-border investment.

We propose mechanisms and guidelines to help governments more effectively address the region's growing demand for infrastructure, believing that the adoption of these proposals will improve the policy framework that governs private investment in this sector. We are convinced that their implementation will prevent infrastructure bottlenecks from becoming a major impediment to the region's continued economic growth.

Finally, we provide recommendations on how APEC can more effectively involve business in economic and technical cooperation. We see our proposals helping APEC ensure that its vision and initiatives gain the support of the wider community in each member economy. We believe that the translation of these proposals into policies will help us build the community of Asia-Pacific economies, to which our Economic Leaders committed themselves in Seattle, Bogor and Osaka.