APEC in Australia?

The oncoming APEC summit is said to be the most important meeting which will have ever been held in Australia. But I don't think it's true. According to The Age (4th September, 2007), the most important international meetings held in Australia were in 1942, between Geveral Douglas MacArthur, Prime Minister Jobn Curtin and the War Cabinet. They helped to turn the course of World War II, and changed the future of Australia.

This weekend's summit will gather the most important group of people in Australia. But whether it will have an important impact on the world is unclear, because unlike many other important international meetings, APEC never makes decisions. It's just like, a group of leaders sitting together, talking about how they tackle their own countries' problems and disscuss common problems, such as economic issues, security, trade, environmental issues. Anyway, there's not shortage of issues for leaders to talk about. Let's just take China's undervaluation of its curreny, which has had a dominent influence on the world economy. This makes China very attractive to export from, leading to huge rates of investment - nearly 50 per cent of its GDP - blistering growth in employment and output, soaring living standards.

The meetings that matter are those that change the world. But APEC couldn't be in this kind. Do you expect this APEC summit to resolve the global warming issue? Don't do that, because you'd be wasting your expectation. Hope it goes well though.