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Representatives of twenty-one countries belonging to the Asia-Pacific
Economic Cooperation (APEC) have agreed to draw up plans to prevent
terrorist attacks on shipping and maritime trade.
The APEC High Level Meeting on Maritime Security Cooperation has come up
with a framework to allow exchange of information on maritime security and
to draw up a list of the capacity requirements of APEC member-countries to
be able to implement the new international security measures in their
maritime sectors.
"Terrorism is one of the most destructive threats to APEC's goals of free
trade and investment in the Asia-Pacific region," Makarim Wibosono, the
Indonesian chairman of the grouping's counter-terrorism task force.
He said tighter security measures may raise the cost of goods and slow the
flow of people but the alternatives were worse. Also tackled at the meeting
was the alarming rise in piracy in Asia Pacific waters.
The International Maritime Bureau, an ocean crime watchdog, said in July
that violent acts of piracy on the high seas hit a record 234 in the first
six months of this year -- a jump of 37 percent from the corresponding
period of 2002. |
