By Joann Santiago
MANILA, May 6 (PNA) — Preparations for the 2015 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders’ Meeting, which the Philippines is hosting in Manila from November 18-19, are moving on schedule.
This was assured by APEC 2015 National Organizing Committee (NOC) head Director General Marciano Paynor Jr. during Wednesday’s turn-over ceremony in Malacanang grounds of the initial batch of BMW vehicles to be used by the APEC delegates.
Paynor explained that the APEC Leaders Meeting normally has a 90 percent attendance rate and the only reason why leaders from the 21-member countries were not able to attend is due to elections.
”There is no reason for them not to come,” he said
Paynor said there is one country that will have a national election a few months before the Leaders Meeting but he did not identify this.
Among the APEC countries that will have national elections before November this year are Canada and Thailand. US will have its general elections on November 3, 2015.
Paynor said leaders from China, Japan and Korea will join the Leaders Meeting.
He stressed that APEC events serve as a venue where the member-countries talk about multilateral issues about economy and not politics.
Relatively, Paynor assured the public that BMW’s sponsorship of the vehicles for the 2015 APEC meetings followed the government’s procurement law.
He said they asked manufacturers of high-end cars including BMW, Audi, and Volkswagen for sponsorship since early 2014 but the others declined to join the bidding process because of inability to come up with about 200 units in time.
”BMW is one of the first to come to us because they had been similarly sponsoring multilateral meetings in Singapore, Bangkok and many other countries,” he said.
Meanwhile, Asian Carmakers Corporation (ACC), the official importer and distributor of BMW in the Philippines, will be extending the BMW 7 Series long-wheelbase sedan, which is worth about Php3.5 million each, and BMW 5 Series sedan and Gran Turismo models worth about Php5.5 million each.
ACC President Maricar Parco, during the turn-over ceremony, said they will be sponsoring the vehicles for the APEC leaders from May to November this year.
She said the 200 cars will cost about Php800 million, which she assured is not a loss for ACC and BMW because the vehicles will be recalled after the event and will be sold.
”The use is for free…BMW is really keen on partnerships with leadership meetings such as this and we wanted to be the provider for this leadership meetings since after which we are selling the cars anyway,” she added.
The cars will be used initially during the APEC meetings in Boracay in the province of Aklan in May. (PNA)