The East-West Center in Manoa will host the informal senior officials meeting in December to kick off the 2023 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference hosted by the U.S., according to an official with the U.S. Department of State.
“As we did last time the US was the host nation for APEC in 2011, the East-West Center is proud to be again hosting this important initial Senior Officials’ Meeting that helps set the APEC agenda for the year,” said East-West Center President Suzanne Vares-Lum, in a statement to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. “This is a terrific opportunity for the Center to highlight our ability to attract important international meetings to Hawai‘i, which is a critical element of our recently updated five-year strategic plan.”
The meeting of about 150 is a gathering of ambassadors and their staff from APEC member countries. APEC’s 21 economies include the leaders of China, Canada, Russia, Mexico and Japan. The conference of world leaders that marks the end of the host country’s yearlong obligations in November of next year is looking for a host city in America.
The U.S. announced that APEC was returning to the U.S. during Vice President Kamala Harris’ official state visit to Singapore last year.
The series of meetings between representatives of the APEC economies encompasses a myriad of topics and continues in February, May and August before culminating in the leaders meeting in November.
Hawaii hosted the leaders summit in 2011, a logistical and financial feat that took nearly four years in which to prepare.
At that time, the city allocated $28 million over two years for APEC-related costs, about $22 million of that for the Honolulu Police Department. HPD spent about $10.5 million of that.
The U.S. location for next year’s leaders meeting has not been determined, although Honolulu is on a short list of cities under consideration by the National Security Council.
Staff members of Gov. David Ige, Lt. Gov. Josh Green, representatives from the East-West Center, Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi, Managing Director Michael D. Formby and bank executives met recently with federal officials while they were in town from Oct. 3-5.
“State of Hawaii personnel participated in a meeting with the U.S. Department of State, at their (U.S. Department of State’s) request,” Cindy McMillan, Ige’s communications director, told the Star-Advertiser. “The Ige administration is not planning to submit a bid to host APEC but anticipates that the state would try to be helpful if the federal government decides to host the meeting in Hawaii.”
The timeline for the U.S. hosting the 2023 meeting was “condensed,” the state department official acknowledged. It made sense to start the U.S.’s year of APEC host responsibilities in the same city that last hosted world leaders in 2011, according to the state department. Federal officials walked through the East-West Center
campus in June.
The regional economic forum was established in 1989 to create greater “prosperity for the people of the region” by promoting balanced, inclusive, sustainable, innovative and secure growth and by accelerating regional economic integration, according to APEC.
In addition to the U.S., APEC membership includes Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, the Russian Federation, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.
