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7th ANNUAL MEETING
ASIA PACIFIC PARLIAMENTARY FORUMOpening Ceremony and 1st Plenary Session
Monday, January 11, 1999 – (15:30 – 16:30)
Hon. Oswaldo Sandoval, Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the Congress of the Republic of Peru:
Mr. Alberto Fujimori, President of the Republic, Honorable Deputy Yasuhiro Nakasone, Chairman of the APPF; Dr. Ricardo Marcenaro, President of the Congress of the Republic of Peru; ladies and gentlemen from the different congresses attending this meeting, colleagues.
The Peruvian Congress was included as a full member of APPF in 1993, in the General Assembly held in Manila, Philippines. From that time up to now, we have been very pleased to take part very actively in all of the General Assemblies convened with the purpose of supporting the very important aims of this Organization, which was founded and led by the former Prime-Minister of Japan and great friend of Peru, Deputy Yasuhiro Nakasone.
The Congress of Peru endorses and supports very firmly the objectives which have been outset in the Tokyo Declaration, a framework within which the activities of this Forum take place.
The Peruvian Congress, besides having the honor to lead a Committee of Technological Development, on behalf of which we are going to convene APOINT 2001, with the purpose of exchanging the legislation available within the region, is also pleased to be a member of the Executive Committee of APPF, and on behalf of our colleagues from Mexico and Chile, we have to thank all our colleagues who have given us the honor of hosting this 7th Annual Meeting, exactly when our country has formally started its activities as full member of APEC, only a few months ago. In APEC, Peru will be working with the same encouragement and dedication the Peruvian Congressmen have dedicated to APPF. We expect that the organization of this Conference be at the level of the importance of APPF, at least the organizers of the Peruvian Congress have displayed their best efforts so that this becomes true. Welcome and thank you very much.
Hon. Ricardo Marcenaro, President of the Congress of Peru:
Mister President of the Republic of Peru, Alberto Fujimori Fujimori; Mr. Deputy Yasuhiro Nakasone, President of APPF; Delegates of the different country-members of the Asia-Pacific Parliamentary Forum; Congressmen of the Republic, Ladies and Gentlemen.
In my position as Chairman of the Peruvian Congress, it is an honor to address this opening ceremony of the 7th Annual Meeting of the APPF. We would like to express our deepest satisfaction, because twenty-two delegations will be attending this Assembly, delegations which have accredited 233 participants, that we are sure will contribute to bring closer together the countries in terms of economy, culture and social issues.
We are aware that our region nowadays, in spite of the world crisis, is an area of important sustainable economic growth and is one of the markets with the largest possibilities for the Third Millenium. In that sense, we have to focus our efforts to foster the economic development of each one of the member countries by promoting regional cooperation, investment, trade and technology exchange between its members. We also consider that we will only achieve true development within our region, if there is political stability and social development in each one of our countries. Consequently, during this meeting, we should do our outmost in order to reach agreements that will enable us to foster greatly the economic development, to stabilize democracy and peace in each one of our countries, because it is only through peace and democracy and the complementation of our economic effort, that we can achieve the development that our people require and demand. To conclude, we would like to offer you on behalf of the Congress of Peru, the best welcome to our country and to tell you that the work that you will be facing these days, will be addressed to accomplish the goals that you have established, and that the new friendship links that are created among the members will last for a long time, because human relationships are at the base of any agreement. The Peruvian Congress welcomes you and expects you will enjoy your stay in our country. Thank you very much.
Hon. Yasuhiro Nakasone, President of the APPF:
President Fujimori, Chairman Sandoval, ladies and gentlemen. It is my great honor to be able to hold our APPF Annual Meeting here in Peru. It has been a long time dream of ours. We were so excited to get here. Up to this point, I would like to tell all the people in Peru and the honorable members of the Congress, that you have done a great job to host us and we would like to thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Now we are heading towards the end of the 20th century and we will be going into the year 2000. Now this is the 7th Annual Meeting for the Development of the Asia Pacific Region. We have reached many agreements and consensus. When we had our meeting in Vancouver, we agreed in the Vancouver Declaration to further promote the common well-being of the region. In order to further enhance our visions and efforts, we will continue working and we are convinced that we will contribute to a peaceful and prosperous Asia-Pacific Region. However, today we are facing a very serious economic situation and also, nuclear proliferation in Pakistan and India. We are facing very serious problems here. In terms of economic issues, this is going to be a very serious meeting for us to come up with good ideas, as to be able to come out of the difficult situation and to spread stability and peace in the region. Today we held the Executive Committee in the morning and we agreed to focus on these economic issues for this year's Annual Meeting, and we are fortunate to have the great leadership of Chairman Sandoval and I hope your active participation. Thank you very much.
Honorable Alberto Fujimori, President of the Republic of Peru:
Mr. Yatsuhiro Nakasone, Chairman of the Asia-Pacific Parliamentary Forum.
Mr. Ricardo Marcenaro, Chairman of the Congress of Peru.
Mr. Oswaldo Sandoval, President of Foreign Relations of the Peruvian Congress.
Distinguished members of the Asia-Pacific Parliamentary Forum.
Ladies and gentlemen,
It was recently in Kuala Lumpur during the 6th meeting of the APEC leaders and today in Lima, at the beginning of the 7th Annual Meeting of the Asia-Pacific Parliamentary Forum, that I experienced on behalf of Peru, the main satisfaction of sharing with the twenty-one developing or emerging economies this great project that is APEC. After long years, in fulfilling the formalities needed, Peru was finally admitted to this dynamic mechanism of integration representing almost half of the world trade, half of the global GDP and half of the population of this planet. It is with satisfaction and with honor that Lima, the capital of Peru, is proposed to be the venue for the First Meeting of APPF in South America, and I would like to express you the warmest welcome on behalf of the Peruvian people and its government.
To enter APEC was for Peru somehow an adventure of faith and perseverance. It was in 1990 that we were going through a national crisis of such a magnitude that the country was totally paralyzed. The State was unable to pay salaries to the public servants, there were no international reserves to fund any emergency whatsoever. Currency had no value and the word Peru, unfortunately, was synonymous of disaster, here and abroad. Well, that was a country aspiring to become something like, well, a partner of APEC, and that was obviously not concurrent and an unconceivable measure at that time. We called that period of recent history, the period for national reconstruction. The term will have difficulty to be replaced by another because there was no alternative but to start a patient and tenacious task to rebuild Peru from its own foundations. The national reconstruction scheme regarded short, medium and long term objectives, such as to reduce hyper-inflation and to disarticulate the most ferocious terrorism. Both needed an urgent action in the very short and medium term. At the same time we had to begin to restructure our external debt and to start launching our economic reform. And I am saying all this because we must make this known to all the distinguished foreign participants and also to remind to all those Peruvians that are listening to me, where we were at the beginning of the nineties. In the mid-term, we were able to materialize, after a decade of isolation, the presence of Peru in the nation wide arena, a presence that would generate respect. In the mid-term we also had the global and final peace with our sister Republic of Ecuador. The long-term objective continues to be the consolidation of the development process throughout our country that would be integral, harmonious, and sustainable. The objectives of this scheme have been strictly fulfilled. Nobody can deny it. We can not deny our achievements. Between 1997 and 1998 we were surprised by two external factors: the El Niño Phenomenon and the international crisis. The effect of both factors will somehow be attenuated by the success of the national reconstruction and the macroeconomic steadiness. After this critical economic situation we are trying to find a long-term stability looking for an economy where we all have the same opportunities. Peru can, today, with this macroeconomic conditions and the proven stability that we are living through, envision a future that supposes the global exchange amongst the members of the Asia-Pacific Forum. To be member of APEC is an additional stimulus for our country to try to seek for new levels of competitiveness and finally for the broad and almost universal adhesion to the role of the market as the best resource allocator. We know that we have to confront new challenges in the same way. Not only on transport, telecommunications and other aspects of our infrastructure that have an impact in trade and investments, but also in everything that facilitates such an important aspect, as business visas and the establishment of routes by air or by sea, that are scarcely served nowadays. Within this sort of challenge framework we can also see the recent Law of the Amazon of Peru, which is a set of ambitious measures that are trying to promote this part of our territory. At the same time protecting one of the further lands of the planet. The breathing places of the planet. Our Amazon region has an immense variety of exploitable resources, amongst which is one very important for investment, tourism, I mean. Peru possesses a real market economy and that makes us participants of the open regionalism. But this will be enhanced by the geographic position of Peru, which is in the middle of South America, a natural bridge between the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans, which makes Peru a potential access for the integration between Mercosur and the Andean Community or other blocks. Peru is the sole economy that is a member of APEC as well as the Andean Community. The Andean Community from which our country is a founder, groups five countries with a population that goes beyond a hundred and five million inhabitants and a surface of 4,700,000 square kilometers and a GDP of two hundred sixty- four billion dollars altogether. Governments of APEC work for the future, and we will not be able to reach this future unless we make our economy stable and sustainable and to be seen through time. This will mean that we need economic policies that will be consistent with a modern approach of the economy and society, with the design and later application and enforcement of efficient mechanisms of defense, prediction and forecasting of the crisis like the financial global crisis we are living and that are bringing in the uncertainty elements in the international arena. APEC has adopted a cooperation strategy oriented to confront the crisis to accelerate the recovery and to reinitiate the strengthening of our economies. That will consist in supplying a stable return of the product capitals to the region. The reiteration of the objectives of our free trade and investment, in the long term the development and implementation of measures to improve the international financial system. I have no doubt whatsoever that a serious and coherent enforcement of these measures will allow us to recover dynamism in our region. Peru vows its confidence on the recovery and the vigor of economies for the next years from the reforms that they are implementing. These reforms are the first and very positive signs in different countries and we expect that the positive balance of this process will be seen in all the economies of the region pretty soon. I am totally convinced that this meeting will continue in the same line of thought of the previous meetings providing vital elements that will help achieve the objectives of the next millenium as the Era of the Pacific. Reiterating the honor that we Peruvians feel to be hosts of this meeting, I declare open this 7th Annual Meeting of the Asia-Pacific Parliamentary Forum. Thank you very much.
Hon. Oswaldo Sandoval:
Dear colleagues, the Chairman has had the kindness of reviewing our next agenda item with us, so we will request our colleagues to follow the agenda and our next item will be the introduction of the delegations. Beforehand, I must say that Chairman Nakasone has asked me to chair this part of the session, therefore I wish to thank him for his kindness. We will start with the Australian delegation for the presentation and introduction of the different delegates.
Australian Delegation:
Chairman Nakasone, Chairman Sandoval, I am honored to introduce to you the delegation from Australia. If you pardon me, let me explain that for Australia this is a very important convention because we expect to be the hosts of the 8th Annual Convention this time next year in Canberra, and so we have brought with us on my right, Mrs. Senator Margaret Reid, who is the President of the Senate in Australia, has been the President since 1996 and is the most senior parliamentarian on our delegation. We also have with Senator Reed, Mr. Simon Crean, who is the Deputy Leader of the Labor Party, the minority party in Australia, and his presence here reflects the importance that the opposition parties place on the APPF and their desire to be a part of the joint hosting that we will offer in Camberra next year. On Mrs. Reid's right we have Mr. John Forrest who is the whip of the National Party in the Federal Parliament. Mr. Forrest's role, as a coalition colleague of mine is akin in the National Party to be something like the sheep dog, one might say, of the Parliament. I am here as the speaker of the House of Representatives and it is an honor to have this opportunity to lead the Australian Delegation. I have with me, apart from my parliamentary representatives, Mr. Trevor Rowe, who comes as the Delegation Secretary, Mr. Peter Gibson, who is here as my chief of staff, and Mr. Rajan Venkatamaran, who is here as the representative of the Australian Embassy in Chile and this is the last time I will have to introduce him in that form because I am proud to reinforce the fact that the Australian government will be opening an Embassy office here in Lima early this year, something of which we are very proud. Thank you for the opportunity to join you here in Lima for the 7th APPF . We hope we can learn from you a lesson or two to make us effective hosts of the 8th APPF in Canberra next year.
Hon. Oswaldo Sandoval:
Allow me to inform you that the Australian introduction was a little longer than expected, because they will be the host of the next meeting of the Asia-Pacific Parliamentary Forum in Canberra next year. I would really appreciate if the next delegations would make a short introduction of the delegations, in alphabetical order, please.
Brunei Delegation:
Thank you, Mr. Chairman for allowing me to present the Brunei delegation. On my left Mr. Dato Haji Judin bin Haji Asar and on my right Mr. Ghafar bin Ismail , and myself, Pengiran Jaya Indera Pengiran Haji Mokhtar Puteh . Thank you.
Canadian Delegation:
Chairman Nakasone, Chairman Sandoval, and, of course, President Fujimori, President of the Congress, I am Dan Hays from Canada, member of the Senate, the Government Party, and our delegation comprises in addition to myself, starting on my left, Senator Don Oliver, a Progressive Conservative, the official opposition in the Senate, Roger Gallaway, Member of Parliament from Ontario, Liberal Party, Nelson Riis, a Member of Parliament from British Columbia, the new Democratic Party opposition. On my right, Jim Jones, a conservative member of the house from Ontario, Michelle Guimond, member from Quebec, and our Executive Secretary Norm Radford.
Chilean Delegation:
My name is Mario Ríos, I am the Chairman at the Senate in Chile, and we come with the delegation formed by Salvador Urrutia, Member of the Party for the Democracy, deputy by Arica, the congressman Mr. Patricio Cornejo, member of the Christian Democracy, member of the Health Commission, congressman Carlos Ignacio Kuschel from Renovación Nacional, from the south of Chile, and congresswoman María Rosa González also from Arica and Congressman Edmundo Salas from the region of Concepcion. We are very happy to be here. Thank you, very much.
Chinese National People’s Congress Delegation:
We are very pleased to come to Lima to take part in this meeting. I am member of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress and Mr. Duxin Xu, is the Vice-President of the Foreign Affairs Commission,and the colleague sitting beside me is the Deputy to the National People´s Congress and the member of the Financial and Economic Affairs Committee, Mr. Fei. Thank you, very much.
Colombian Delegation:
Thank you, I represent the delegate from Colombia who is now at the peace negotiations in Colombia. Thank you, very much.
Fiji Delegation:
Messrs. delegates, Mr. Chairman, I have the honor and privilege to introduce the Delegation from Fiji. On my immediate right, we have the honorable Dr. Wadan Narsey, who is member of Parliament and spokesman on finance from the opposition. Ms. Mary Chapman, Secretary to Parliament, and I am Dr. Kurisaqila speaking on behalf of the House of Representatives, and Mrs. Kurisaqila. I would also like to thank the Parliament of Peru for the attachment of our Administrative Officer to develop our Web site for the Fiji Parliament. We were happy to find out that Mr.Frendo of your Parliament remembered one of our officers who was trained here, and I would like on behalf of the Fiji Parliament, to thank you most sincerely.
Thank you.
Indonesian Delegate:
Honorable, Mr. Yasuhiro Nakasone, President of APPF, your Excellency the President of Peru, Mr. Alberto Fujimori, and Mr. Chairman, I am honored to introduce my delegation, of the Indonesian Parliament, and first of all I would like to convey to your Excellency the President of Peru, the best regards of our President Mr. Habibie. We know that our President has sent a formal invitation to your Excellency, the President, and we hope that in a very near future you will visit Indonesia.
On my right hand, I would like to introduce the member of our delegation, Mr. Tinggogoy, and next to him is Mr. Daryanto, then Mr. Zamharir, then Mrs. Indira, Mr. Ja´far Siddiq and also the staff of our delegation, Mr. Kamara Motik and Mrs. Amr Harir, and myself, Dr. Abdul Gafur, speaker of the Indonesian Parliament. Thank you very much.
Japanese Delegation:
The Japanese delegation is made up of Koji Kakizawa, Kazuhiko Tsuji, Kaori Maruya, Daizo Nozawa, Mie Ishida and myself, Tatsuo Ozawa, as members of the House of Councillors, and Junichi Ihara and Takehiro Shimada. The seven of us are the members of the Japanese delegation.
Thank you very much.
Korean Delegation
My name Chung Dong Chea, member of the Korean Parliament and serving as Special Advisor to the President of the Ruling National Congress for New Politics Party for Political and Diplomatic Affairs. Let me introduce the Korean delegation. On my right is Honorable Chung Woo Taik, member of the Korean Parliament, Honorable Chung is the Vice-Chairman of the Policy Committee and the Past Deputy Secretary General of the United Liberal Democrats Party. He is also serving as member of the National Assembly Finance and Economic Committee. Sitting next to him is Mr. Cho Nam Wook, interpreter. On my right is Mr. Byung Chul Moon of the National Assembly's International Organizations Division. Thank you.
Lao Delegation:
Mr. Chairman, I am the only one to present the National Assembly of Laos. My name is Viseth Svengsuksa and I am the Vice-Chairman of the Committee of Foreign Affairs. Thank you.
Mexican Delegation:
Mr. Chairman, the Delegation of Mexico is plurally integrated and is a group of representatives of both Chambers of our Congress. To my left, I have Senator Martha Lara from the Chihuahua State of the Committee of Foreign Affairs for the Senate and for North America. On my right, I have Enrique Bautista, a Congressman from Michuacan State and from the Revolucion Democratica Party and Chairman of the Agricultural Commission. I also have to my right, Francisco Arroyo from Guanajuato, he is the Secretary of the Cultural Commission and member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party. Also, Mr. José Ricardo Ortiz from the Accion Nacional Party and coordinator of the economic group of his party at the Chamber of Representatives. We also have Francisco Javier Zorrilla from the Chiapas State from the Institutional Revolutionary Party, member of the National Executive Committee. I am Senator Eloy Cantú Segovia, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Commission for Europe and Asia, for the Senate of our Republic and member of the National Revolutionary Party.
Micronesia Delegation:
Mr. Chairman, thank you very much. The delegation from the Federated States of Micronesia consists of three members. On my immediate left is Senator Yosiwo George, Vice-Chairman of the Committee on External Affairs. On my immediate right is our Legislative Counsellor, Mr. Dennis Belcourt and myself, the Chairman of the Committee of External Affairs. We are very pleased to be here and thank the Congress of Peru for allowing us the opportunity to be here to take part in this very important meeting. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mongolian Delegation:
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We are the delegation from the Republic of Mongolia. Two persons from Mongolia. On my right hand, Mr. Bold Luvsanravdan who is member of Parliament from the Mongolian National Democratic Party. I am also member of Parliament, representing the Social Democratic Party. Thank you.
New Zealand Delegation:
Mr. Chairman, distinguished hosts, I am Mark Burton, the Chief Opposition whip from the New Zealand Parliament. It is my privilege to be the New Zealand Delegation to this gathering.
Papua New Guinea Delegation:
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for the honor of introducing to you the composition of my delegation to this forum. But before I do that Mr. Chairman, I wish to take this opportunity to thank the President of the Republic of Peru and the Chairman of the Congress of Peru for the warm welcome on behalf of their government, their Congress and their peoples. I myself am John Pundari and I am the speaker of the National Parliament of Papua New Guinea and I am the leader of this delegation. With me, Mr. Chairman, is the honorable Opis Papo who is the Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs. The honorable Robert Sakias, Vice-minister of Mining and Petroleum, both of whom represent the government of Papua New Guinea. The honorable Eddy Saweni, is the Minister of Commerce and Industry who represents the opposition, and with the delegation is the clerk of the National Parliament, Mr. Ano Pala, as well as Graeme Witchurch who is the Secretary to the Delegation. Thank you Mr. Chairman.
Peruvian Delegation:
Mr. Chairman, the delegation of Peru is a multiple party delegation consisting of the following members: to my right is Congressman Amorin, next to him is Congressman Samuel Matsuda, to my left is Congressman Chang Ching, Congresswoman Merino, Congressman Salazar, Congresswoman Fernandez Baca, Congressman Alvaro Orlandini, Congressman Mantilla, Congresswoman Martha Chavez, who was past president of our Congress Office, a woman to lead the Peruvian Congress, and myself Francisco Pardo. Thank you very much.
Philippine Delegation:
Mr. President, Mr. Chairman, I am very pleased to introduce the Philippine Delegation, I am Senator Blas Ople, Head of the Delegation. I am honored to have as members of the delegation Senator Francisco Tatad, Mrs. F. Tatad, Congressman Ronald Cosalan; Ambassador Carlos Villa Abrille, the Philippine Ambassador to Peru; Mrs. Carmen Arceño, Secretary to the Delegation; Ms. Maria de los Angeles Gutierrez, Philippine Honorary Consul in Peru; Attorney Miss Milagros Cruz. Thank you, Mr. President, Mr. Chairman.
Russian Delegation:
Mr. Chairman, my name is Valentin Bogomazov, I am the Russian Ambassador to Peru. It is a great honor for me to introduce the delegation of the Russian Federation. Mr. Vladimir Varnavski, Vice-president of the Federal Assembly for the Russian Federation and President of the Legislative Assembly of the region of Omsk, next to him is Mr. Alexander Venguerovski, Congressman for the State of Murmanks of the Federal Assembly of my country, member of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the State of Murmanks. Thank you very much
Singapore Delegation:
I am Kay Wang, member of Parliament. To my left is Mr. Iswaran, member of Parliament. To my right is Mr. Swee Lim, member of Parliament, he is also the Deputy Secretary General of our National Trade Union Congress. To his right is Mr. Mega Abdula from the Parliament Office. Thank you.
Thai Delegation:
Mr. President Fujimori, Mr. Chairman Nakasone and Mr. Chairman Sandoval. The representatives from Thailand consist of three members. Myself as the head of the Delegation. My name is Senator Pichai Vasnasong, and to my right is Senator Burapa Atthakor, and further to my right Ms. Supasinee Khamasundara, Secretary to the Delegation. We are very happy to be back here in Peru again. Thank you very much.
American Delegation
Mr. Chairman, I would like to introduce the United States Delegation. Mr. Robert Dan, who is Chief of Staff of Senator Roth, who is very sorry he can not be here. Mr. Robert Van Wicklin, Chief of Staff in my office, I am Amo Houghton, Jr. and I am a Congressman from the great State of New York, and I want to thank you, Mr. President, for your leadership, for your courage, for your great academic record and I also like to thank Mr. Sandoval.
Vietnam delegation:
Mr. Chairman, I have great pleasure to introduce the delegation from Vietnam, I am myself member of the Parliament, Vice-chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Assembly, leader of the delegation. To my right Mr. Vu Hai Ha, Secretary to the delegation. On this occasion I would like to express our deep thanks to the Parliament, the government and people of Peru for the warm welcome and excellent conditions given to the participants, and we do hope that our meeting will conclude with fine success. Thank you very much.
Hon. Oswaldo Sndoval:
At the end of this session, on behalf of the Asia-Pacific Parliamentary Forum, I would like to thank very deeply the presence of the President of the Republic of Peru, Mr. Alberto Fujimori Fujimori.
We want to announce our Parliamentary colleagues that the President has had the generosity of accepting to have a meeting for a short time now during the coffee break, that we will have immediately after this inaugural session. The coffee break with our President will only be for the parliamentary delegates. I would like to remind you that at 6.15 pm. we will have our inaugural dinner and we will close our session, reconvening at 9 am. tomorrow. Thank you very much. Good afternoon.