Asia Pacific Countertrade Association

A GREAT SUCCESS!

APCA '96, held between 23 and 25 October 1996 in Manila, saw a turnout of 121 delegates and a number of guests. It was a great success. We are grateful to His Excellency President Fidel V. Ramos, Secretary Cesar B. Bautista and Secretary Renato S. DeVilla and the many resource persons from the Department of Trade & Industry, Department of National Defense, National Economic Development Authority (NEDA); Department of Finance; Department of Science and Technology; Board of Investment, the Armed Forces of the Philippines; The Philippines Air Force; the Philippines Navy and the Philippine International Trading Corporation for helping to make it a success.

Our special thanks go to Mr. Jose Luis U. Yulo Jr., Mr. Miguel Patolot, Ms. Denissa Venturanza and all our friends in the Philippine International Trading Corporation for being such great co-organisers and wonderful partners.

We are also indebted to Itochu, GKN Westland, British Aerospace, Centrobank, Glencore and SGS for their sponsorships, APCA's official journal World News for the conference programme and its editor Mr. Sandy Treahan for his contributions in more ways than one and the many speakers who took time to share their knowledge with all of us.

This is a review on APCA '96 supplementing the reports in World News.

INSIDE

Offsets, Industrial Cooperation and Countertrade Workshop

Offsets, Industrial Cooperation & Countertrade Workshop
The conference was preceded by a full day workshop conducted by many practitioners on 22 October 1996. We thank the speakers for coming a day earlier and sharing their countertrade and offset knowledge and expertise in the Philippines.

The workshop saw about 60 participants.

Opening Ceremony
Prior to the opening ceremony in the evening, several of our members pitted their skills against our Filipino friends on the golf course of "The Orchard" at Cavite on the occasion of the 1st APCA Golf tournament. It was an enjoyable occasion for the fun generated. For those non golfers, they were treated to a Manila City tour. The places visited included Fort Santiago, Casa Manila, Manila Cathedral and Tesoro's handicraft.

APCA '96 opening ceremony commenced at 5:30 PM on 23 October 1996. Our Filipino friends must be credited for the excellent ambience created in the venue. The delegates mingled in a ballroom superbly decorated in rich greenery amidst the sound of live strings playing in the background. The event which stole the show was the key-note address of His Excellency President Ramos. To all countertrade practitioners, it was a speech rich in substance on countertrade and excellent in delivery.Opening Ceremony

Prior to the opening ceremony in the evening, several of our members pitted their skills against our Filipino friends on the golf course of "The Orchard" at Cavite on the occasion of the 1st APCA Golf tournament. It was an enjoyable occasion for the fun generated. For those non golfers, they were treated to a Manila City tour. The places visited included Fort Santiago, Casa Manila, Manila Cathedral and Tesoro's handicraft.

APCA councillors and representatives from the sponsor companies had a private audience with His Excellency President Ramos following the opening ceremony.

Sectional Meetings
The conference proper commenced on 24 October 1996. Those who were not participating in the conference had an array of tours to choose from to enjoy themselves for the two full conference days.

His Excellency Secretary Cesar Bautista kicked off the country focus on the Philippines with his speech on Countertrade and Offset in Philippine Exports and Investments: Policy Framework and Operational Direction

His Excellency Secretary Renato De Villa followed with his speech on the Defense Modernization Program: Countertrade Role, Policies and Administration.

The usual country update meetings led by facilitators and speakers commenced in the afternoon of 24 October and continued for a full day on 25 October 1996.

Members of the Council met to attend to the association's concerns on 24 October evening. Amongst the matters discussed was the implementation of a system to enable renewals of subscriptions to begin on the same date namely, 30 June of each calendar year.

The two day working sessions ended with the traditional gala dinner where we were entertained by world-class Filipino entertainers, "Miss Saigon" and the "Unforgettables".

Private Meetings
It is particularly heart-warming for APCA to see many parties bent over meeting tables, making new contacts, negotiating and in some cases visibly signing contracts on the very first day. We hazard to guess that more of such activities are taking place behind closed doors.

We expect that future APCA conferences should see an increase in these activities as the conference is indeed the annual event for such non-conventional deals to be matched, discussed or even, as we are now beginning to see, concluded.

The Day After
Several delegates concluded their visit to Manila with a tour of the island of Corregidor, a historic World War II site.

Coming of Age
With APCA'96, APCA came of age. It saw for the very first time a head of state delivering a spectacular key-note address on countertrade; it saw parties actually concluding contracts; it allowed APCA's views on countertrade and offsets to be heard on a country's offset policy - the last two as conceived in the strategic plan leading to the formation of APCA and now becoming real some four years later.

Both our President and Secretary General were unexpectedly honoured by World News with their receipt of World News' Hall of Fame Lifetime Achievement awards together with His Excellency President Ramos receiving World News' Hall of Fame Global Lifetime Recognition Award.

We look forward to meeting in Jakarta for APCA '97 to be co-hosted with PT Prima Comexindo and with Mr. Asghar Mehdi as Chairman of the APCA '97 conference organising committee.