APEC leaders to target universal Internet access by 2010.

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, Nov. 10 Kyodo

Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leaders will announce next week in Brunei the goal of securing individual or community-based Internet access for all people in its 21 member economies by 2010, according to a draft document obtained Friday.

The draft of a leaders' declaration to be issued at the end of a two-day annual summit next Wednesday and Thursday says the leaders will develop and implement a policy framework ''which will enable the people of urban, provincial and rural communities in every economy to have individual or community-based access to information and services offered via the Internet by 2010.''

As a first step toward that goal, it says the leaders will seek to at least double by 2005 the current number of people with such access in the APEC region, which covers Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, the United States and Vietnam.

''Our vision is to prepare each of our economies and all of our people to use the technology revolution as a passport to the fruits of globalization,'' it says.

The leaders acknowledge accomplishing the task will require massive infrastructure development and human capacity-building, with governments working closely with businesses, trainers and educators to develop the necessary policies.

To help members prepare for the information technology-driven new economy, the draft says APEC leaders will also launch a capacity-building program ''to strengthen markets, electronic commerce, infrastructure, knowledge and skills development and provide cheaper and more efficient access to communications and the Internet for the new economy.''

In the document, the leaders instruct their ministers to intensify preparations for launching a new round of multilateral trade liberalization negotiations under the World Trade Organization (WTO).

They welcome progress made in developing a new APEC strategic plan to build developing countries' capacity to implement their existing obligations under WTO agreements.

The $13 million plan, which Japan has been instrumental in pushing forward, is part of developed-country efforts to help build a consensus among developing countries for a new WTO round and persuade them of the merits of trade liberalization.

Many developing countries, already struggling to implement existing trade liberalization commitments, fear further liberalization would only benefit developed countries. Last year's failure to launch a new WTO round in Seattle was partly attributable to those concerns.

In the draft, the leaders commend confidence-building measures adopted in the WTO that address concerns over market access for least-developed countries and urge ''effective implementation and the participation of more economies in the least-developed economies market access initiative.''

Reflecting the sharp differences remaining over what items should be on the agenda of a new round, the leaders merely call on their ministers in the draft to make progress in the mandated agriculture and services negotiations already underway, and to continue preparatory work on industrial products.

On the increasing number of free-trade areas being formed in the APEC region, the leaders stress they should be building blocks to strengthening the multilateral trading system and realizing APEC's goals of free trade and investment in the region by 2010 for developed economies and 2020 for developing ones.

Such arrangements ''should be consistent with WTO rules, in line with APEC architecture and supportive of APEC's goals and principles,'' the draft says.