PRIME MINJISTER3/ 9
STATEMENT BY THE PRIME MINISTER, THE HON P J KEATING MP
APEC BUSIN~ ESS FORUM: AUSTRALIAN REPRESENTATIVES
At our meeting last year in Seattle, APEC leaders agreed to establish an APEC
Business Forum to " identify issues APEC should address to facilitate regionaf ijide7
and investm ent and encourage the future development of business _ netwo~ rks*
thioughout the region".
The APEC Business Forum will bring together one representative of large business
and one of small to medium enterprise from each APEC member economy and will
report to the 1994 APEC leaders' meeting in Indonesia. It will play a vital role in
providing leaders with a business view of constraints to the further development of
trade and investment in the region and ways in which APEC can assist in overcoming
them. It will also consider ways of involving business much more closely in APEC's
work. I am pleased to announce that Australia's representatives on the Forum will be
Mr Philip Brass, Managing Director of Pacific Dunlop, and Mrs Irnelda Roche,
Managing Director of Nutri-Metics International. Both Philip Brass and Imelda Roche
have extensive business experience in the Asia-Pacific region as well as in Australia
and I believe they will make a strong contribution-to the Forum's work.
Pacific Dunlop is one of Australia's largest international companies and has an
increasing proportion of its operations in the Asia-Pacific region. As the Australian
representative at the APEC Business Roundtable meeting in Seattle last year,
Philip Brass has already made a significant contribution to dialogue between business
in APEC's member economies. He was also a member of my APEC Business
Consultative Panel which gave me valuable assistance during my preparations for the
Seattle meeting. Philip Brass was BRW Australian Businessman of the Year in 1984.
Under the joint leadership of Imelda Roche and her husband, Bill Roche, Nutri-Metics
International initially expanded throughout the Pacific region to New Zealand, Japan,
Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei and Thailand and more recently to Hong Kong and
China.
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Mrs Roche led the recruitment and development of the Nutri-Metics Asia-Pacific sales
force and was awarded the Australian Pursuit of Excellence Award in 1986 for her
role in the direct selling industry. She was named Australian businesswoman of the
year in 1991. In 1993 Imelda Roche was appointed chairman of the World Federation
of Direct Selling Associations and Nutrimetics was named BRW retailer of the year. I
attach a high priority to strengthening APEC's policy dialogue on small and mediumsized
businesses and am looking forward to working with Mrs Roche on this.
The APEC Business Forum is expected to meet twice before November 1994. A date
has not yet been set for the first meeting.
CANBERRA April 21, 1994