Introduction

This chapter is designed to stimulate discussion and informed debate about the organizational structure and role of the APEC Secretariat. The chapter reviews the evolution of the Secretariat, its current situation, its weaknesses, as well as options for improvement. Finally, it makes some recommendations to strengthen the effectiveness of the Secretariat.

Background

The APEC Secretariat was established in Singapore in 1992 with the intention of creating a support mechanism that reflected the informal, consensus-based nature of the APEC process. Thus, it was decided to keep the Secretariat small, based on secondments from host economies. It was not expected to emulate the much larger permanent staffs of other multilateral organizations such as the OECD. The Secretariat was mandated to provide four core functions:

1. • Advisory, operational, logistic, and technical services to member economies and to APEC fora.

2. • Financial oversight, control, and evaluation of projects funded from the APEC Operational and TILF (trade and investment liberalization and facilitation) accounts.

3. • Information and public affairs support to promote APEC's role and activities.

4. • Capacity to support research and analysis in collaboration with APEC Study Centres and the Pacific Economic Co-operation Council (PECC).

During the past decade, there has been a substantial enlargement of the APEC agenda, with more committees and fora, more sectoral ministerial meetings, and more projects than was the case in the early days of the organization. The issue now is whether the current resources and structure and operational procedures of the Secretariat are adequate to cope with both this increased workload and the greater expectations of member economies.

Current Situation

At present, the APEC Secretariat is led by an Executive Director seconded from the member economy which is hosting the annual APEC process. There is a deputy Executive Director, seconded from the member economy which will host the APEC process in the subsequent year. The deputy is in effect “learning the ropes” for the following year during which he will have full responsibility for leading APEC when his economy is the host.