CHINESE President Xi Jinping will attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Leaders’ Meeting to be held from Nov. 17 to 19 in Manila, summit organizers and the Chinese foreign ministry said Monday.
At a press briefing at the Palace, the director-general of the Apec 2015 National Organizing Council, Ambassador Marciano Paynor Jr., confirmed the Chinese leader’s attendance and said preparations for the summit were now 97 percent complete.
“What we are doing now is just fine-tuning all of the details that need to be done…. We are prepared to receive 20 economic leaders from the various members of Apec plus one head of state of another country—well, specifically Columbia who will be attending a meeting with the leaders,” said Paynor.
“The expectation is all of the leaders are coming until they officially say that they are not,” Paynor said.
Earlier, there was some doubt if Xi would attend, given the growing tension between China and the Philippines over a territorial dispute in the South China Sea.
Paynor said this year’s Apec meeting would discuss micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), which comprise about 95 percent of the Philippine economy.
Other issues include taxation, and ensuring that free trade among member economies is upheld.
Paynor said managing the movement of the Apec leaders was a challenge.
“You can very well imagine that there will be 21 leaders crisscrossing the area from all the way from Makati and farther and the whole of Roxas Boulevard coming in to the meeting venue at the PICC. On top of that, you have the concluding Ministers Meeting, and there will be 42 foreign ministers and ministers responsible for the trade again crisscrossing the metropolitan area, plus their delegations that are supporting them,” he said.
“So that’s where we are at this point. And we are doing timings of how long does it take from point A to B to C,” he said.
A statement issued by the Chinese foreign ministry said: “At the invitation of President Benigno Aquino III of the Republic of the Philippines, President Xi Jinping will attend the 23rd Apec Economic Leaders’ Meeting in Manila, the Philippines from November 17 to 19.”
The Apec meeting will be held in Manila from Nov. 17 to 19.
APEC’s member economies are Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong-China, Indonesia, Japan, Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Chinese Taipei, Thailand, United States, and Vietnam, which account for 57 percent of global production and 46.5 percent of world trade.
Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Lula del Rosario, chair of the Apec 2015 Senior Officials Meetings, said the South China Sea dispute would not be on the Apec agenda because it is a political issue, and because it is not common to all Apec members.
At the same briefing Monday, Paynor said the P10 billion budget for Apec was not only for the summit this November, but for Apec expenses for the whole year.
“That’s for the whole year of hosting and that is what we spent in Clark, what we spent in Tagaytay, in Cebu, and Bacolod,” Paynor said.
“We have improved a lot of things… So I think that amount should not be taken out of context. It should be taken as an infusion of a particular amount of money that we suddenly had and then we put it into the economy. It kind of fuels the economy. So that is how we should look at it,” he said.
On the other hand, Paynor said when the government planned the holidays, they consulted also the private sector.
“When we formulated this policy, we worked closely with the private sector, with the business organizations. And so they told us that if possible the minimum number of days be considered and that’s the reason that earlier on, in order to give everyone enough time to make adjustments. The President had signed the proclamation that 18th and the 19th will be declared as holidays,” said Paynor.
“So because private sector said ‘please no more holidays,’ then we said ‘okay, public sector, which is government, and schools’ and that would have removed about half, if not two-thirds, of the traffic in the Metro Manila area. So that was the only palatable solution that we could find. So that’s how it is. And I hope everybody understands that this is the reason,” he said.
Former President Fidel V. Ramos said the Philippines must be ready for all possible worst-case scenarios when Manila hosts the Apec Leaders’ Summit next week.
Ramos’ statement came amid a scandal over an extortion syndicate in the airport where security personnel plant bullets in luggage to extort money from travelers.
“This racket or fiasco or scam called tanim-bala where they plant a bullet in someone’s luggage that’s about to undergo inspection at the airport – that’s really bad. Number two, there are all kinds of protests in town… Then you have all sorts of militants that demonstrate in the streets for any kind of reason,” Ramos said in an interview over ABS-CBN.
The Philippines hosted the Apec Summit in Subic in 1996 when Ramos was president. Ramos had suggested three years ago that the Apec 2015 be hosted in Clark, Pampanga, so that there would be no need for class suspensions, traffic disruptions and work holidays in Manila.