INTRODUCTION

The organization that I head, the Pacific Basin Economic Council, is a bit of a misnomer. We're called the Pacific Basin Economic Council, but little of our activity is in the Basin itself, it's mostly been concentrated on the Pacific Rim. The good news is that we're about to change that.

One of the principal things we do each year is our annual meeting, where we bring together an incredible cast of characters, close to a thousand CEOs together in one spot for policy development and business networking. The meeting goes on for several days. I'd like to invite you to visit our web site http://www.pbec.org/ for information on our next meeting, which will be held here in Hawaii in March. This will be the first time that our annual gathering of CEOs will take place in the Basin. This area has been ignored far too long and its opportunities are far too great for us to keep information on this region away from our members. Our members include senior-level executives at the most senior level from corporations such as Motorola and Mitsubishi and Itochu of Japan. They're in all sorts of businesses across the spectrum.

A SINGLE WORLD MARKET

These are fascinating times that we live in today. Times that include all sorts of contradictions. On the one hand, everything is going global; there's no question that we seem to be moving toward a single world market. Any corporation that isn't a global thinking company is probably not going to be in business very long. In today's world there is no excuse for new business to reach out beyond national borders. E-commerce is available to all thanks to the ever-expanding Internet.

Marketing Unique Products

At the same time the world seems to becoming homogenized — "unmarked". There is a need for unique products, services, and places to visit. Thus, building on your uniqueness provides a positive marketing advantage for those who possess unique products. We need not think that because we are located far from the world's population centers that we cannot market effectively to these centers, no matter how far away they are, provided we have a quality product or service.

Commerce and Privatization

The Internet can certainly make an upstart company an overnight success if we are prepared to make technology work for us. But one thing that was not mentioned today and I think is so important to mention, is that government can be a major hindrance to the advancement of commerce through the Internet. I'll give you an example. I know one country here in the region that went about to privatize the phone company and ended up with about forty to fifty percent ownership. When you have government owning half of the phone company there is little, if any, incentive to reduce cost and prices. If anything, the rates go up. In today's world you need excellent telecom service and low rates to be able to get on to the Internet and develop new business.

So the one thing that I'd like to leave with you today before actually getting into the subject of international organizations is that privatization of many government services is essential for an economy to be healthy. If Secretary General Levi is correct, free trade agreements and thus, open markets will become the mainstay. You have to be more and more efficient and competitive. A company in a country where the government still controls the phone company or I would even argue the airline or the power company and other services is going to come up short when it comes to being competitive. Privatization, thus, is something that must be pursued at all costs. Government clearly has a purpose, but it should not be in the phone business, it should not be in the energy business, it should not be in the airline business, and it should not be in a lot of areas where they find themselves creating bureaucracies that are nearly impossible to control.

PACIFIC ISLAND ASSETS

Okay I'll get off my soapbox and talk about these beautiful Pacific islands that we call home. I believe that we are the world's best kept secret. We have untold natural resources and workforces whose capabilities are not appreciated. The mass majority of people in Europe, North America, and Asia only dream of visiting our islands but never think that they could do business in and with our island republics and territories. I don't believe that we do a very good job collectively of marketing our area. And I'm not just talking about the area of tourism. We don't tell the world about our assets. One of the reasons we don't do a better job of marketing is as the Secretary General said earlier today, that we're an area made up of very small economic entities. If we all work together, we suddenly have a much larger voice. And if we stay separated, or we stay nationalistic, or we stay parochial, we're never going to be heard or appreciated.

INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

On the subject of organizing business organizations internationally, I'd like to share my organization's experience with you. From Honolulu, we coordinate twenty Secretariats that PBEC has around the Rim. Our members are from different cultures, speak different languages, and include economies that are at radically different levels of development. Yet the organization has been prospering since 1967. The reason is that all of us have shared goals and objectives that our organization focuses on. The bottom line is that an international organization is not a whole lot different than an association within a given country.

Building Alliances Among Nations

In building alliances among and between nations you need to find good folks that have the same problems that you have and see the same opportunities that you do. Once you get like-minded people together with similar goals and objectives in two countries you can form a bilateral organization, and that's usually a way multi-national organizations get started. It's not surprising that many of the countries represented here do have good bilateral relationships, with a given country that might be a major supplier of goods and services to it or a major market, or where there's a language connection, historical connection, or cultural connection. But if you're really intent on moving forward then you have to bring in that third country, fourth country, etc, with the goal that more is better.

A Regional Focus

This is where I think that organizations like the East-West Center, the Maui Pacific Center here, and the South Pacific Forum can help; where the infrastructure is there, the history is there, the culture is there. By working together you should be able to form central secretariats that are required to make local organizations go regional. One of the things you must do though is to look beyond nationalistic parochialism. Because one of the big things that I see keeping back progress, economic development in many of the island republics, is that we tend to think nationally when we should be thinking regionally.

International organizations are not much different than domestic ones in another important respect. They are made up of a hand full of caring people who have a vision for a better future. When I participated in the WTO meetings in Seattle, I met several of the same people that I saw at the APEC meetings in Auckland just two months earlier. International organizations are made up of a small community of dedicated individuals just like local organizations. I'm convinced that if you work at it and you have meaningful goals and objectives, you can make it happen.

Private Funding Sources

There's another issue in creating international organizations and that's money. I know of very little non-governmental organizations that aren't short of cash. Governmental organizations, on the other hand, always seem to have money because they have the ability to take taxpayer funds and spend them. But non-governmental organizations have to really, really work hard to make ends meet.

We had a discussion earlier this morning about different models of chambers of commerce. One is that the government is very much behind the chamber. They assess certain fees for documentation or a tax on goods imported or exported. Then they "bless" business by giving some of their own money back by funding the chamber of commerce. In accepting a substantial portion of the funds needed to manage a business organization, you're sleeping with the devil — allowing bureaucracy and politics to enter. So even though you may struggle, funding should come from the private sector if the organization is a private sector oriented entity. Business and governments have to work closely together but government should not be seen as paying the way for the private sector. I think business organizations only work when members feel that they have contributed to it and that they are getting something out of it.

Stand Up and Be Heard

Another point that I would like to mention is that in my travels I frequently meet individuals that won't participate in international organizations; they think that because they are from a small country and amongst individuals from giants, their voices will be ignored. The truth is, however, that often behemoths quake when an eloquent spokesperson that is dedicated and feels a passion for a certain topic, stands up and speaks. This is certainly the case in my organization, so don't think that because you're from a small economy you can't stand up and be heard. In addition to forming new organizations that cross national boundaries, I encourage each of you to consider joining existing groups and becoming active in them to benefit your economy.

CONCLUSION

The final point that I'd like to raise with you today is that I believe there is an incredible economic development opportunity in our Pacific Basin Region. Recently during a visit to Tahiti, I was amazed at how lacking it was in infrastructure development for tourism. The government and business communities there are now encouraging more development and are seeing good results. If we work together forming cross border alliances to promote our region, I believe that private sector investors will come, people will buy our products and services, and many more people will visit the paradise that we all call home.