Secretary Christopher. I wanted to put into perspective some of the achievements of this week's ministerial meeting, as well as to indicate to you the significance of next week's Leaders' Meeting at Bogor -- significance for APEC itself, and for the entire region. APEC has made extraordinary strides in the last five years. Five years ago there were just 12 members, and the future of APEC, I think, was far from certain. Today, 18 members strong, APEC has come alive as an economic force, a force for growth and integration throughout this region. I think it is poised to become a key building block in the future of this region.

Under President Clinton's leadership last year at Blake Island near Seattle, the APEC leaders articulated a vision for the future, a vision of promoting regional growth and unleashing the dynamism of businesses and individuals in this area. During the last year, we have been working hard trying to transform this vision into reality. This year, Secretary Brown, Ambassador Kantor, and I presented the ministerial with three specific proposals that promise to help unleash the ability of individuals and businesses in this region to provide jobs and economic growth. Our first proposal was to create an Asia-Pacific Business Forum that would provide a permanent channel for private businesses in this area to feed into APEC's work and to assist the APEC ministers. Second, we proposed a meeting of transportation ministers, to take place in the United States, to examine the vast infrastructure needs that this region has. Third, we proposed the establishment of an APEC Educational Foundation -- a non-profit corporation to coordinate all of APEC's education and human resource development activities, activities that will help economic ideas move across the boundaries of this vast region. We found very strong support for each of these initiatives among the APEC members. Each is reflected in the APEC communique, and I think APEC will be working hard on these three matters during the course of the next year.

I also used the occasion to call the ministers' attention to a subject not formally on the agenda, but of great importance; that is approval of the GATT Uruguay Round. The APEC nations share an enormous stake in the agreement's approval. I must tell you, I believe each representative of the nations here who spoke to me about it indicated they are looking to the United States to approve GATT so the region can continue on the pattern of economic growth. That is one of the messages I will take back to the United States with me -- the reliance that the nations of this region have on the United States to provide leadership in moving forward with GATT ratification. I told them of President Clinton's determination to ratify GATT and my own strong confidence that the United States Congress will ratify GATT after the debates are over and the votes are in.

I strongly believe that the regional promise of APEC can build upon the global benefits to be gained by GATT ratification. President Soeharto's bold call for open and free trade in this region by a set date is something we strongly endorse, and we are looking toward the leaders to achieve a historic breakthrough in this regard. I think we prepared the way in our ministerial meetings for the leaders to make next week's Leaders' Meeting a truly landmark event in open trade in this region.

Finally, I use the occasion of this ministerial to reaffirm the determination of the United States to maintain our engagement in the Pacific. We will remain a Pacific power. We will maintain our military strength and stand by our security commitments in the region with five very important treaty alliances. We want to sustain the momentum begun at Blake Island -- continue it in Bogor -- momentum toward a Pacific Community of shared values, shared prosperity, and shared security interests. I think President Clinton and his heads-of-state colleagues can make real history next week, and I believe we have momentum in that direction. Thank you very much.

Secretary Brown. Secretary Christopher has spoken effectively for both Ambassador Kantor and me. Let me just add a very brief comment. President Clinton has, from the very beginning of his Administration, made economic growth and creation of jobs in the United States his priority. That really is what our attendance and participation here at this ministerial meeting has been all about. It seems clear to me that this ministerial has made APEC stronger. We are clearly on the right track and are very pleased with the results of our deliberations here. There is no question that this region has extraordinary potential and that we cannot talk convincingly or act convincingly about economic growth and job creation in the United States without looking to the Asia-Pacific region. APEC gives us a vehicle to advance the commercial interests of all of our nations; that is why we are so pleased with the results of our discussions.

I was particularly pleased with the new focus on private sector involvement. It seems clear to us that a public- private partnership is absolutely essential to moving forward in our effort to create an environment for economic growth and job creation. It cannot be done without private sector involvement. It seems to me having government officials not only interacting with, but listening to, private sector leaders are certainly very important and effective ways to accomplish our goals.

I think a focus -- which was a new one -- on small- and medium- sized enterprises is a good focus. As many of our larger companies, particularly in the United States, go through down- sizing, we will become more productive and more competitive. Growth opportunities really exist with small- and medium-sized enterprises, and having their involvement and having APEC focus on creating opportunities for those firms, I think, is equally important.

Finally, it seems clear that economic engagement -- that commercial engagement that works can help not only in our bilateral relationships, to overcome problems and obstacles that exist, but it helps us in a multilateral context as well. So we could not be more pleased with the results the ministerial has just accomplished.

Ambassador Kantor. Thank you Secretary Christopher, Secretary Brown. I have a couple of comments to add. First, to thank our Indonesian hosts, to recognize Congressman Minetta and Ambassador Mondale who have been -- (inaudible) -- in helping us put this trade agenda together, and our officials who did such fine work in making these meetings such a great success. We are in the middle of our -- last year was a hat trick without a National Hockey League season. At least we can have a hat trick in trade between the successful APEC meetings here, the Uruguay Round vote which we believe will be successful November 29 and December 1 in the House and Senate, and the Summit of the Americas in Miami December 9 through 11. Truly, President Clinton's vision of opening markets and expanding trade is becoming a reality. The two areas we are dealing with -- the Summit of the Americas and APEC -- will represent well over half of U.S. exports as we go into the next century. These are the two fastest growing regions in the world, and they represent a dynamic increase in industrialization, a rise in the middle class, and markets for our companies and for American workers.