APEC SUMMIT 2015

The ASIA-PACIFIC ECONOMIC COOPERATION, or APEC, was established in

1989. It started as an informal ministerial level dialogue group with 12 members
comprising of Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia,
Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Canada, and the United States.
HISTORY

In January 1989, Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke called for more effective
economic cooperation across the Pacific Rim region in Seoul, South Korea. This
led to the first meeting of APEC in the Australian capital of Canberra in
November, chaired by Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Gareth Evans.
The first APEC Economic Leaders Meeting occurred in 1993 when U.S.
President Bill Clinton, after discussions with Australian Prime minister Paul
Keating, invited the heads of government from member economies to a summit
on Blake island.
During the meeting in 1994 in Bogor, Indonesia, APEC leaders adopted the
Bogor Goals that aim for free and open trade and investment in the Asia-Pacific
by 2010 for industrialized economies and by 2020 for developing economies.
In 1995, APEC established a business advisory body named the APEC Business
Advisory Council (ABAC), composed of three Business executives from each
member economy with the aim of providing advice to the APEC Economic
Leaders on ways achieve the Bogor Goals and other specific business sector
priorities, and to provide the business perspective on specific areas of
cooperation.

MEMBER ECONOMIES
Currently, APEC has 21 members, including most countries with a coastline on the
Pacific Ocean. However, the criterion for membership is that the member is a
separate economy, rather than a state. As a result, APEC uses the term member
economies rather than member countries to refer to its members. APEC also
includes three official observers: (1) Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN), (2) the Pacific Islands Forum, and, (3) the Pacific Economic Cooperation
Council (PECC).
MEETING LOCATIONS
The location of the meeting rotates annually among the member economies, and a
famous tradition, followed for most (but not all) summits, involves the attending
leaders dressing in a national costume of the host country.
#
1st

YEAR
1989

2nd

1990

DATES
CITY
November 6- Canberra
7
July 29-31
Singapore

COUNTRY
Australia
Singapore

3rd

1991

4th

1992

5th

1993

6th

1994

7th

1995

8th

1996

9th

1997

November
12-14
September
10-11

Seoul

South Korea

Bangkok

Thailand

November
19-20
November
15-16
November
18-19
November
24-25
November

Seattle

United States

Bogor

Indonesia

Osaka

Japan

Subic

Philippines