VZCZCXRO7786
RR RUEHCHI RUEHFK RUEHHM RUEHKSO RUEHPB
DE RUEHKO #5943/01 2852244
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 122244Z OCT 06
FM AMEMBASSY TOKYO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 7376
INFO RUEHZU/ASIAN PACIFIC ECONOMIC COOPERATION
RUEHNE/AMEMBASSY NEW DELHI 8136
RUEHFK/AMCONSUL FUKUOKA 8437
RUEHNH/AMCONSUL NAHA 0976
RUEHOK/AMCONSUL OSAKA KOBE 1812
RUEHKSO/AMCONSUL SAPPORO 9511
RUEATRS/TREASURY DEPT WASHDC
RUCPDOC/USDOC WASHDC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 TOKYO 005943 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE PLEASE PASS TO USTR FOR MICHAEL BEEMAN 
STATE PLEASE PASS TO EPA 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ECON ETRD SENV EFIN APEC JA
SUBJECT: MOFA PUSHES FOR ASIA-PACIFIC STATISTICAL NETWORK 
AND HIGH LEVEL PARTICIPATION IN KICK-OFF CONFERENCE, 
NOVEMBER 5-6 
 
TOKYO 00005943  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
¶1.  (U) Please see last paragraph for possible action. 
 
¶2.  (SBU) Summary and Introduction:  On October 6, MOFA 
called in selected embassies to promote GOJ's concept of an 
Asia-Pacific Economic Research Mechanism (APERM) and to 
encourage high level attendance at a kick off conference in 
Kyoto, November 5 - 7.  While saying it would be up to the 
conference to define the proposal, MOFA outlined the concept 
as a network of government and private institutions in key 
countries of the region to develop and harmonize statistics 
relating to sustainable development.  The statistics would 
cover both developed and developing participants and 
macro-economic statistics as well as social and environmental 
statistics.  In doing so, it would add value to existing 
databases, MOFA believes.  The data would be available to 
governments, international organizations (including APEC) 
academia and the private sector and APERM could become an 
APEC activity over time if members wished.  MOFA invited Amb. 
Schieffer to the conference and listed U/S Sheeran, A/S 
Sullivan and Amb. to APEC  Michalack  as &proposed8 
participants. Separately, MOFA DG for Economic Affairs 
explained to EMINS on October 10 that APERM was a modest 
proposal with a big objective: helping China develop more 
realistic statistics, which is essential for understanding 
potential bottlenecks to development of the region.  We 
underlined to Ishikawa our continuing skepticism.  End 
Summary and Introduction. 
 
¶3.  (SBU) The APERM meeting was chaired by Amb. Sawako 
Takeuchi, Special Advisor to the Minister (and former GOJ 
candidate for Secretary General of the OECD) and Deputy DG 
for Economic Affairs Kusaka.  It was attended by 
representatives from Australia, Canada, India, Korea, 
Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, U.S. (Ecouns) and the ADB. 
Indonesia,s and  New Zealand,s flags were present, but they 
had no representatives attending. 
 
¶4.  (SBU) MOFA officials explained that the purpose of the 
Kyoto conference, which would be hosted by a MOFA Vice 
Minister, would be to discuss mechanisms for sharing 
statistical information important to governments, investors, 
business, international organizations and academia.  The 
fifteen countries invited to the conference were chosen for 
their geographical location, economic influence, and degree 
of interdependence and with a view to keeping the size 
manageable.  MOFA has invited high-level participants from 
government and the private sector and provided a conference 
agenda, proposed participants list and other information 
(faxed to State/EAP/J). 
 
¶5.  (SBU) While noting that the conference would make its own 
conclusion, MOFA explained its proposal would be for the 
participants to endorse a three-year pilot project to be 
launched in April 2007.  The project would be to create a 
&platform8 for an information network among governments and 
the private sector in participating countries. In this sense 
it would be a "track one and a half8 endeavor. The 
statistical network would be an international &public good8 
open to all parties.  It would be run through contact points 
in each country, with some minimal maintenance work to be 
preformed centrally.  Participants would decide how often to 
meet but some meetings would be necessary to provide 
direction.  The statistics would at first be macroeconomic, 
but later be extended to environmental and social, including 
energy and water demand/availability, to give a full picture 
of the sustainability and inter-relatedness of the region,s 
development.  Over the longer term the project would aim at 
statistical "harmonization", which would require some 
governmental involvement and go beyond that currently being 
done the UN framework, which is mostly macroeconomic.  The 
GOJ plans to present this concept at the APEC Summit, but the 
level was not stated. 
 
¶6.  (SBU) Takeuchi and Kusaka were at pains to note that the 
MOFA proposal was a GOJ proposal, and to differentiate it 
from METI,s proposal for an OECD-like regional think tank. 
They said METI,s proposal was for the ASEAN plus 6 region 
and was meant to help the ASEAN secretariat with economic 
policy issues.  MOFA's proposal was aimed at creating a 
 
TOKYO 00005943  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
comprehensive and standard base of statistics that could be 
used for policy formulation but could also be used by the 
private sector and to foster regional integration. 
 
¶7.  (SBU) Asked why not house the network in APEC, Kusaka 
noted that India was to be included in the statistics and it 
was  not an APEC member.  In addition several APEC economies 
did not have developed statistics or would not have a major 
impact on regional statistics.  However, Kusaka allowed that 
after the trial period it would be possible to house the 
initiative in APEC and/or to expand to other economies as the 
members wanted.  He also noted that in any case the 
statistics gathered would be available for and useful to APEC. 
 
¶8.  (SBU) Canada said it welcomed the conference and planned 
to attend.  Other participants, except India and the ADB 
representatives, asked several questions, with Australia 
appearing the most forward leaning. Separately, MOFA 
officials stressed the high importance they attached to 
participation by the U.S. 
 
¶9.  (SBU) Separately, on October 10, MOFA DG for Economic 
Affairs, Kaoru Ishikawa, underscored to EMIN the importance 
the GOJ attaches to the initiative.  He said he had hatched 
the idea over lunch with Takeuchi and the mechanism would 
fill a real void in the region.  Responding to concerns 
raised by EMIN, Ishikawa said he regretted the way APERM was 
rolled out and the confusion created by what appeared to be a 
similar, if not almost competing, initiative launched by METI 
at about the same time.  Ishikawa wanted APERM to be a "low 
profile" undertaking, divorced as best as possible from 
politics.  The Kyoto conference and the APERM process, he 
said, is intended to "awaken" countries in the region, 
particularly China, to the importance of accurate, 
transparent economic data to development and to help them 
achieve such statistics. 
 
¶10.  (SBU) We understand that no one from Washington will be 
attending the conference and, unless informed otherwise by 
October 20, will so inform MOFA.  Unless instructed 
otherwise, embassy plans to keep the option of our attendance 
open at this time. 
SCHIEFFER