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Amazing APECWorld leaders are coming to town, but why? Story by Chris Blake
But other than moving homeless dogs and people out of the centre of Bangkok or making terrorists want to bomb the capital, what will the effect of APEC be? Or even more importantly, just what is APEC? APEC is the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation. It is a group of countries � located all around the Pacific Ocean � that was formed in 1989 to help each of the member countries increase its economic growth and learn to work together. In 1989, APEC had 12 member countries, but over the years has grown to include 21 countries on four continents. There are now 2.5 billion people who live in APEC countries, and the group has a combined GDP of $17 trillion dollars (that's a whopping 697,000,000,000,000 baht). APEC countries are responsible for nearly half of all of the trade that happens in the world. OK those are a bunch of amazing and also confusing statistics. But none of those answer just what APEC does when it meets. Let's try to make that a bit clearer. Think of APEC as a club. Think of each club member as if they own a business. Each year this club gets together at a club member's house (country) and gets to know each other better. Each club member tells how their business is doing this year and works with the rest of the group to find ways to make doing business with each other easier. The main way they do this is by making it easier for each club member to buy other members' products. When one club member buys the goods of another club member or sells goods to another club member this is called "trade." But other things happen at the gathering. Let's say one big club member's business is doing really well, and another smaller member's is struggling. The club talks about this and shares advice about how the small business can learn from the big business. The small business member also tells the bigger business guys what they can do to help out.
But these aren't club members and these aren't businesses. These are countries and economies. And these countries include some of the biggest and most powerful in the world. The decisions and plans made at these meeting will have an affect on a great number of people. That's why so many people are paying attention to the upcoming APEC meeting, and that's why the eyes of the world will be watching Thailand for a few very short, but important, days in October. economic growth (n): the increase in trade, industry and development of wealth of a country GDP (n): (gross domestic product) the total value of all the goods and services produced by a country in one year economy (n): the relationship between production, trade and the supply of money in a particular country Australia Area: 7.682 million square kilometres Brunei Darussalam Area: 6,000 square kilometres Canada Area: 9.971 million square kilometres Chile Area: 757,000 square kilometres China Area: 9.561 million square kilometres Hong Kong, China Area: 1,000 square kilometres Indonesia Area: 1.904 million Square kilometres Japan Area: 378,000 South Korea Area: 99,000 square kilometres Malaysia Area: 333,000 square kilometres Mexico Area: 1.973 million square kilometres
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It's
hard not to notice that Thailand will be hosting the APEC summit in
October. Information about the event is on the TV, in the newspapers,
on billboards and even on the Skytrain.
So
basically the club members share ideas, concerns and plans for the future
of their businesses.