Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation:

APEC began as an informal Ministerial-level dialogue  group with 12  members in1989 in Canberra, Australia. APEC Economic Leaders met for the first time to outline APEC's vision, "stability, security  and prosperity  for our peoples" in 1993 in  the USA.  In  1994  in Indonesia it  set the Bogor Goals of, "free  and open trade  and  investment  in the Asia-Pacific  by  2010 for developed
economies and 2020  for developing economies." APEC adopted the Osaka Action Agenda (OM) which  provides a framework for meeting the Bogor Goals through trade and  investment  liberalisation, business facilitation and sectoral activities, underpinned by policy dialogues, economic and technical cooperation in 1995. Since  then  through  the Manila Action Plan for APEC (MAPA) in 1996  and Early Voluntary Sectoral Liberalisation (EVSL) scheme of 1997 in 15 sectors efforts have been made to achieve the free trade goals.

In  2000  in Brunei, APEC established an electronic Individual Action Plan (e-IAP) system, providing  IAPs online  and cornmited  to the Action Plan for  the New  Economy, which,  amongst other objectives, aimed to triple  Internet access  throughout APEC region by 2005. APEC's  first Counter-Terrorism  Statement  is  issued  in China  in 2001. It agreed  to re-energise  the WTO Doha Development Agenda negotiations and stressed the complementary aims of bilateral and regional trade agreements, the Bogor Goals and the multilateral trading  system under  the WTO  in 2003 in  Thailand. APEC dedicated  itself  not only to promoting  the prosperity of member economies, but  also to improving  the  security of  the peoples of the Asia- Pacific region. APEC pledged to take specific actions to dismantle terrorist groups, eliminate  the danger of weapons  of mass  destruction and confront other
security  threats. Members sign up to the APEC Action Plin on SARS and the Health Security Initiative  to further protect personal security. APEC  also strengthened its efforts to build knowledge-based economies, promote sound and efficient financial systems and accelerate regional structural  reform.

In  2005 in Korea APEC  adopted the Busan Roadmap, completed the Mid- Term Stocktake, which had found that APEC is  well on its way to meeting  the Bogor Goals, and  the APEC Privacy Framework. Leaders issued a stand-alone statement in support of a successful conclusion to the WTO's  6th Ministerial Meeting in Hong Kong, China and agree to confront pandemic health threats
and continue to  fight against terrorism, which could cause deep economic insecurity for the region.

The above sequence of events and decisions only point to the fact that APEC has been high on  its agenda but  the  actual progress  in  terms of trade and investment integration has been rather invisible. There are hardly any studies that offer any  signs of progress in real  terms. The main  reasons for  the  less than desired success of APEC can be considered as disparate membership and very wide agenda, which has lacked focus.