The opening ceremony for a classroom equipped with 22 brand-new computers on August 9 was a sensation for the only university in Lae, the second largest city in Papua New Guinea. "Few people have the experience of surfing the Internet in this city, and you can find no broadband Internet access here," says Tsai Shiang-wu, who went to Lae three weeks earlier to convert part of the school's library into this computer classroom. After the opening, teachers from Taiwan used the classroom to hold a one-week course in computer use for local government officials, teachers and businessmen. In future the classroom will also be a venue where locals trained by Taiwanese will teach other Papua New Guineans about information technology.
Tsai works for the International Cooperation and Development Fund, a non-profit organization sponsored by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It is currently entrusted by the Bureau of Foreign Trade (BOFT), an agency of the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA), with the task of enhancing information technology in six member countries of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) grouping--Chile, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines and Vietnam. The Lae computer classroom is an APEC Digital Opportunity Center (ADOC), part of Taiwan's mission to eliminate the region's digital divide.
Taiwan proposed the ADOC plan at the APEC Leaders' Meeting in Bangkok in 2003, since when it has already built 19 centers and trained over 100 teachers who are in turn expected to teach their compatriots computer and information technology skills in these six countries. Scheduled to last until 2008, the ADOC plan has drawn more attention among the Asia-Pacific community than any other Taiwan's APEC initiatives. "ADOC's significant progress has been welcomed by APEC ministers who have acknowledged the need for continuing the organization's work to bridge the digital gap ... so as to enable all APEC member economies to better benefit from the knowledge economy," Tran Trong Toan, executive director of APEC's Secretariat, said during a visit to Taiwan in June. Toan was in Taipei to attend ADOC Week, an event in which representatives from the six countries exchanged experiences in how to eliminate the digital divide within the community.
"For APEC members, the ADOC project has gradually become a major symbol of Taiwan," says David Hong, president of the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER) and director-general of the Chinese Taipei APEC Study Center, a government-sponsored organization founded in 1998 under the auspices of TIER.
The Spirit of APEC
Taiwan's effort to provide assistance to less-developed APEC countries is in line with the spirit of economic and technical cooperation, or ECOTECH, which is one of the three pillars on which the development of APEC has been built. With 21 members differing widely in development stages, wealth, size and economic and political systems, APEC has been seeking to build a sense of community through cooperation, an ideal which is again reflected by the theme of the Vietnam-hosted 2006 APEC meeting: "Toward a Dynamic Community for Sustainable Development and Prosperity."
The ideal of ECOTECH in turn strengthens the other two pillars of APEC, trade and investment facilitation and liberalization. ECOTECH efforts such as ADOC are aimed at helping less developed countries catch up with the rest of the community. Then, as the development gap in the region is narrowed, it will become easier to eliminate trade and investment barriers among member economies.
ECOTECH is, therefore, of primary importance in achieving the goals announced by APEC leaders in Bogor, Indonesia, in 1994, according to which developed economies have to open up their trade and investment environment by 2010, and developing ones by 2020. To achieve its goals, APEC relies on peer review and peer pressure, rather than binding agreements and resolutions. Its strategy is to goad its members to come up with individual action plans and, since 1996, produce annual reports on their efforts. Last year, APEC produced the Midterm Stocktake, an overall progress report on the effort the community had made so far toward the Bogor Goals. After that, APEC announced the Busan Roadmap, named after the South Korean city in which last year's meeting was held, which provides solutions to problems impeding the fulfillment of the goals.
With an ambition to create barrier-free trade and a regional peace through cooperation, the community as a whole is seeing progress, although individual members differ in their degree of dedication. The average tariff in the region has dropped from over 16 percent in 1994 to around 6 percent in 2004. Founded in 1989 at the suggestion of the then Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke, APEC certainly plays a role in facilitating globalization as it helps form a freer market in one of the largest regions in the world. In terms of trade volume, the 21 economies of the APEC account for more than 40 percent of the world's total.
Multiple Benefits
While making a valuable contribution to the APEC community, Taiwan also benefits from its participation in APEC. "People are talking about a future Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP). Taiwan's especially happy about this idea," says Hsu Chun-fang, deputy director-general of the BOFT. Hsu thinks the FTAAP shows the importance of APEC for Taiwan. "It's hard for Taiwan to sign bilateral FTAs with other economies. So the birth of the FTAAP could solve this problem for Taiwan once and for all." The idea of an FTAAP was proposed by Chile when it hosted the 2004 APEC summit. Taiwan has since been very supportive toward the proposal and promised further efforts to align itself with FTAAP expectations, although not all APEC members are as interested.
APEC is especially important to Taiwan because it is one of the few international organizations that has granted admission to Taiwan despite China's opposition. Nevertheless, despite Taiwan's full membership of the organization, since its accession in 1991 under the name of Chinese Taipei, it has never been fairly treated due to pressure from China--unlike other members, Taiwan can not hold high-level APEC activities like the annual ministers' meeting, and its head of state has never made it to the leaders' meeting. Nevertheless, for Taiwan APEC is a major gateway to the world.
"Taiwanese have had a limited global outlook since it withdrew from the United Nations in 1971. APEC serves as a channel through which Taiwanese can get to know the world again," says Shiau Chyuan-jeng, professor of political science at National Taiwan University.
Compared with the World Trade Organization, the other major international organization of which Taiwan is a member, APEC is perhaps even more significant since it is quick to respond to world trends and addresses a wider range of concerns, in addition to its core economic and trade issues. Health, for example, has been on the APEC agenda since the SARS outbreak in 2003. While it has been difficult for Taiwan to enter the World Health Organization, the country's health experts and officials can freely interact with their foreign counterparts through APEC. Six months after SARS broke out on the island, Taiwan worked with Thailand and the US in organizing an APEC Health Task Force, an ad hoc unit addressing health threats like SARS and bird flu. "With the exception of the Ministry of National Defense, all the government agencies of Taiwan participate in APEC affairs," says David Hong.
APEC initiatives also involve business opportunities, Hong says. For example, VIA Technologies, an electronics industry heavyweight based in Taiwan, donated 20 computers to a Vietnam ADOC in May. Echoing the government's move to play a significant role in APEC, VIA at the same time has started to enhance its presence and find digital opportunities in this fast-growing economy.
An Invaluable Platform
APEC means a lot to Taiwan also because it provides a platform through which "Taiwan can have direct contact with important figures from countries that have no formal ties with Taiwan but have close economic relations," says Shiau.
Such a platform emerges on the days when heads of state and other top government officials from member economies show up at high-level meetings such as the annual APEC Ministerial Meeting and Leaders' Meeting. After those meetings on the official APEC agenda, Taiwan's top officials and their foreign counterparts usually have bilateral talks in which they may reach understandings or agreements. "These informal bilateral meetings are so valuable to Taiwan because we have few chances to do that outside the APEC framework," says Johnny Chiang, acting director of TIER's Division of International Affairs. It is not only Taiwan that seeks to talk to others but other countries that want to talk to Taiwan, according to Chiang. "The informal talks are important to Taiwan, but they are so to other countries as well."
APEC is also of great political significance. "The APEC Leaders' Meeting is the best and the only occasion where Taiwan can declare its sovereignty, as the proxy for the nation's leader interacts with other heads of state," says David Hong.
Exactly because APEC is so important to Taiwan, Liu Fu-kuo, an associate research fellow in the Institute of International Relations at National Chengchi University, hopes that Taiwan can be more dedicated to APEC affairs.
"Compared with smaller economies, Taiwan's doing well. But with its economic strength, Taiwan should contribute more to the community. It should be more active in systematically cultivating talent familiar with international affairs as well, so that Taiwan can exert more influence at APEC meetings."
Making More Effort
Liu's comment is echoed by Chiang. "We should replace the personnel in government agencies dealing with foreign affairs less often, otherwise we cannot accumulate enough experience in this respect or build connections in the international community." According to Chiang's observations, much of the time Taiwanese tend to be only listeners at APEC meetings but rarely take part in discussion. "If you speak up and show more strength, other countries will automatically speak for you. South Korea and the US gave support to us when we fought for entry into APEC exactly because of our economic strength. If Taiwan performs even better and comes up with more initiatives in APEC, other international organizations may show more willingness to accept us," Chiang says. "Other countries can afford to be listeners only, but Taiwan can't."
Indeed, considering the harsh international realities, Taiwan can never feel contented about the contributions it has made to APEC. Taiwan has certainly attracted more attention in the international arena, but it must always try to do more for the community than other members.
One Village, One Product
In the wake of the plaudits garnered by the ADOC plan, Lin Hsin-i, the proxy for Taiwan's president Chen Shui-bian last year, proposed another initiative, One Village, One Product (OVOP), at the 2005 APEC leaders meeting held in Busan, South Korea. The prime minister of Thailand, Thaksin Shinawatra, showed support for the proposal on the spot and, therefore, this year Taiwan invited Thailand to work together on the plan.
The three-year initiative plans to promote the specialties of various towns and villages in the region, such as handicrafts and local tourist assets, by, for example, creating an online exhibition through which they can display their products and exchange information via photos, text, animation and motion pictures. Fourteen members and one observer--the Pacific Islands Forum--of APEC have joined this project, according to the MOEA's Small and Medium Enterprise Administration, which is responsible for executing this initiative.
When the one-year virtual exhibition was formally launched late in August, representatives from the countries involved gathered in Taipei for a three-day forum where they exchanged views on the development of specialties industries. Other activities related to the OVOP program include training courses on e-commerce scheduled to take place in 2007 and an OVOP summit meeting in 2008 attended by experts on specialties industries and high-ranking government officials responsible for making related policies.