PRESIDENT YUDHOYONO, JOHN KEY HAVE BILATERAL TALKS

Singapore, Nov 14 (ANTARA) - Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and New Zealand Prime Minister John Key held bilateral talks here on Saturday morning.

The two leaders held the bilateral talks at 8.30 a.m. local time at Marina Mandarin Hotel's Gemini Room in the run-up to the 17th Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum.

After the 30-minute talks, the two government leaders were scheduled to attend a luncheon with other APEC economic leaders before the first informal session of the APEC Summit at 1.30 in the afternoon.

Then at 4, the APEC economic leaders will hold a dialog with the ABC (APEC Business Advisory Council).

Besides having bilateral talks with the New Zealand prime minister, President Yudhoyono had made a series of bilateral meetings with several heads of state/government, among others with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Chinese President Hu Jintao, and Papua New Guinean Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare.

The APEC economic leaders from 21 member countries are scheduled to hold the summit in Singapore on Nov 14-15 to discuss among other things regional free trade uniting process, and Bogor Goals for developed countries in 2010.

APEC is a forum for 21 Pacific Rim countries to cooperate on regional trade and investment liberalization and facilitation with its objective to enhancing economic growth and prosperity in the region and to strengthen the Asia-Pacific community.

In January 1989, Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke called for more effective economic cooperation across the Pacific Rim region.

This led to the first meeting of APEC in the Australian capital Canberra in November, chaired by Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Gareth Evans.

Attended by political ministers from twelve countries, the meeting concluded with commitments for future annual meetings in Singapore and South Korea.

The first APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting occurred in 1993 when US 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.

He believed it would help bring the stalled Uruguay Round of trade talks on track.

At the meeting, some leaders called for continued reduction of barriers to trade and investment, envisioning a community in the Asia-Pacific region that might promote prosperity through cooperation.
The APEC Secretariat, based in Singapore, was established to coordinate the activities of the organization.

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.