Ellen Liu
China Tibet Online
November 10, 2014
As Beijing is fully engaged in the APEC meetings from Nov. 5 to 11, you may wonder how much it will impact the Tibet Autonomous Region, seemingly so far away from the meetings in China’s capital. The answer is that it is not so far away as you may think.
Firstly, APEC，established in 1989, is the highest level, most influential regional economic organization in the Asia-Pacific region to advance regional economic integration and promote continued development in the region. Over the past two decades through the joint efforts of all the member countries various benefits have been reaped for the people of the Asia-Pacific region, including freer trade, a lower cost of commodities, more frequent exchanges of personnel and more convenient custom clearance. Tibet, as a part of China, is naturally a beneficiary of these results.
Secondly, APEC has brought about better opportunities for development. Aside from the informal state leaders’ summit and ministerial meetings, other side events are also held such as the “APEC Investment Fair”, and the “Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Technological Exchanges Fair and Exhibition”, which have also boosted the economic development of the entire region. Tibet has been taking an active part in these related activities, pursuing opportunities for enhancing the economic growth of the autonomous region. In 2005, Tibet attended the “APEC Investment Fair” held in Busan, Korea，which attracted foreign investment with a total trade volume of 200 million U.S. dollars. In June this year, Tibet attended the “8th APEC Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Technological Exchanges Fair and Exhibition” in Yiwu, Zhejiang Province, where distinctive products of 20 enterprises were on display including Tibetan medicine，food and drinks and high quality mineral water.
Finally, Tibet’s stability has been closely related to the APEC topics of anti-corruption. As it is well known, terrorism and corruption will engender negative effects on economic development. It is reported that a consensus will be reached at the APEC meeting this year regarding these issues, from which every member country will benefit. Recently, Chinia’s Central Inspection Group stated: “Tibet is no exception to the anti-corruption campaign.” Earlier this year, a batch of corrupted officials were dealt with in the Tibet Autonomous Region. Likewise, anti-terrorism has been given the same weight on the top agenda of the people’s government of the Tibet Autonomous Region.
All of the above shows that APEC is closely related to the Tibetan people’s daily life. Therefore, Tibet is not very far from APEC.
