Can APEC Achieve Its Bogor Goals?
Regionalism has recently gained momentum in East Asia. A variety of bilateral free trade areas (FTAs) have been proposed, as well as regional integration concepts, such as China-ASEAN, Japan-ASEAN, and ASEAN + 3 (China, Japan and Korea). This reflects Asia’s dynamism and should help to avoid a recurrence of financial crises. On the other hand, East Asia, or ASEAN + 3, is a part of a greater concept of regional cooperation, APEC (Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum) which used to work as a strong engine before the crisis. What has happened to APEC? Is there a paradigm shift from APEC to ASEAN + 3? APEC has not yet come to an end and should be utilized for steady development of East Asia. Bangkok APEC in 2003 APEC now formally incorporates 21 economies surrounding the Pacific Ocean, including Australia, New Zealand, Chile, Peru, Mexico, United States, Canada, and Russia, in addition to the East Asian economies. Last year (2003) Thailand hosted Ministerial and Leaders’ Meetings in Ban
