EXCLUSIVE: Japan Hopes to Devise Action Plan at APEC Talks

Tokyo, July 29 (Jiji Press)--Japan hopes to adopt a draft action
plan for sustainable growth of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum
members at a meeting in southwestern Japan in August, informed sources told
Jiji Press on Thursday.
The plan to be adopted at a high-level APEC meeting on growth
strategies in Beppu, Oita Prefecture, will include measures in five fields
such as human resources development and entrepreneurship promotion, the
sources said.
Tokyo hopes the draft will be discussed at the APEC summit to be
held in the eastern Japan city of Yokohama in November, to pave the way for
the adoption of the action plan by the end of 2011, the sources said. The
APEC leaders will review progress on the action plan at a meeting in 2015.
The draft plan will also cover the fields of intellectual
foundation, structural reform, green innovation and human security,
according to the sources.
Specifically, it will include measures to promote higher education
and women in the workplace.
Other expected measures are steps to raise research and development
outlays relative to gross domestic product and increase the number of patent
applications.
At a summit last year in Singapore, the APEC leaders agreed to map
out growth strategies for member economies to help the world recover from
the economic downturn exacerbated by the collapse of Lehman Brothers in
2008.
The leaders agreed to establish a high-level conference to pursue
such goals. The Beppu meeting will be the first gathering of the conference.
The forthcoming event will bring together ministers and other
representatives from the 21 APEC members. Japanese participants will include
National Policy Minister Satoshi Arai and Minister of Economy, Trade and
Industry Masayuki Naoshima.