Quick Processing For Apec Cardholders Available At US Airports

By Mohd Arshi Daud & Nor Baizura Basri

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 5 (Bernama) -- Holders of the Apec Business Travel Card (ABTC) can now enjoy expeditious processing at international airports in the United States, US Senior Official to Apec, Michael W. Michalak, said.

"It is (effective now). You still have to have a visa to enter the US but if you have an Apec Business Travel Card, you will be able to go through the crew lane at international airports in the US

"Believe me, if you haven't been to the Chicago Airport, going through the crew lane is going to save you a whole lot of time," he told Bernama in a recent interview.

Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, among the world's busiest airports, is also among the largest airports with no less than 162 aircraft gates covering an area of 3,080 hectares.

During the Apec Summit in Hanoi, Vietnam in November 2006, the US announced plans to implement the ABTC at some of its international airports, embassies and consulates.

In other ABTC participating countries, Apec businessmen could travel without separately applying for a visa. The carholders enjoy a three-year re-entry permit to these countries.

Apec members which have signed up to ABTC are Australia, Brunei, Chile, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, China, the Philippines, Malaysia, Peru, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.

The ABTC system was established in 1996 and is designed to complement Apec's agenda of fostering regional trade.

"I think right now, US businessmen are applying for the cards. We are working with Apec to make sure that in the US, we can issue the cards to our own business people," said Michalak, who was here last for Apec's Senior Economic Officials meeting.

Michalak said that other Apec members are joining the ABTC system.

"Once we instituted our system, Canada, which has begun a pilot programme, would follow something rather similar to what we are doing and I heard that Russia and Mexico are now considering how they may also join ABTC.

"I'm hopeful that we will be able to have the entire Apec family using the travel cards in the near future."

On another note, Michalak said the US looks forward for a robust agenda in this year's meetings of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec), which Australia is hosting.

"We certainly look forward to a very robust agenda, particularly in the field of trade and economic liberalisation," he said.

"We recognise that you can't have prosperity without security and there will be some trade related security issues such as airport security and container which we continue to look on.

Apec 2007 involves a series of meetings, at the senior officials and ministerial level, culminating in the Apec Economic Leaders' Meeting in Sydney in September 2007.

Apec is the premimier forum for facilitating economic growth, cooperation, trade and investment in the Asia Pacific region.

Apec groups Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Philippines, Russsia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, United States and Vietnam.

Michalak said Apec 2007 would also deliberate on strengthening the Apec secretariat including giving it more analytical power and to increase its resources so that the secretariat could deepen some of its work on capacity building.

The US, he said, wants to tighten the agenda within Apec so that the Apec secretariat could be strengthened to better serve the senior officials and the rest of Apec process.

"We have some 44 or 47 different working groups within Apec and we are looking to see (whether) we really need that many, can we slim it down, can we combine certain working groups, how can we make it more efficient?"

The secretariat would also make better use of information technology and would be receiving funds to enhance its operations from a few Apec member countries, said Michalak.

"The (US) president said that we will put in our budget request for fiscal year 2007 and 2008, (i.e.) US$5 million each year to work on capacity building within Apec.

"China has recently committed US$2 million a year for three years while Japan has offered to fund some extra research capability for the secretariat.

"I think there are lot of things going on to try and put more resources into the organisation to make it more efficient and improve our ability in capacity building," he said.