The Philippines is hosting the 2015 APEC Summit for the second time. In 1996, the country under the term of former president Fidel V. Ramos, the APEC Leaders Summit was held in Subic Bay with most of the APEC leaders attending including former U.S. President Bill Clinton.
APEC is composed of 21 countries in the Asia-Pacific region which include Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chili, People’s Republic of China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Republic of the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Chinese Taipei, Thailand, United States of America and Vietnam.
For the convenience of APEC participants, Philippine President Benigno Aquino III declared 17–20 November as school holidays and 18–19 November as special non-working days in Metro Manila.
The holidays are intended to reduce traffic in Metro Manila for the duration of the week-long event. Organizers say the fewer people out in the streets during the leaders summit, the easier for them to secure the participants particularly the heads of governments of the 21-member organization.
There have been ministerial meetings early in the year in various parts of the country leading up to the Economic Leaders Summit next week. Some of the cities that had hosted the events include, Makati, Baguio, Iloilo, Cebu, Albay, Clark in Angeles, Subic in Zambales and Boracay, among others.
The year-long consultation and meetings by the APEC working groups will culminate at the Philippine International Convention Center at the Manila Bay area where the leaders of the 21 Asia-Pacific nations will converge on Nov. 18 for finalization of a non-binding agreement.
“It is a summation of everything that has transpired in the 43 other prior meetings. That’s what the 21 economic leaders have decided in effect to be the year’s work,” said Paynor, a former ambassador and chief of presidential protocol.
The Philippines is spending about P9.8 billion ($208 million) to host the event. The bulk of the expenses go to infrastructure including access roads, facilities like hotels for accommodation of guest and delegates, security, transportation, communications, venues, food, uniforms and cultural presentations, among others.
Paynor said two-thirds of the whole efforts go to security as the risk of securing the participants is 10 times more than it was 18 years ago when the first summit was held in Subic Bay.
“The money goes back to our economy. It pumps the economy. I’m making a comparison so everybody knows to each his own way of hosting. If [China] spent that much and they didn’t have that kind of money, that’s another story. But we spent X amount for the whole year. I think that’s a fairly decent amount,” Paynor said.
China was the host of last year’s APEC Summit. In 2016, Peru will assume the APEC presidency and the country will be the next to host the annual event.
