MEDIA ADVISORY: BAY AREA COUNCIL TO HOST BRIEFING ON UPCOMING ASIA PACIFIC ECONOMIC COOPERATION (APEC) SUMMIT
The Bay Area Council will host a briefing today on the upcoming Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit from 5:30pm – 6:30pm. The U.S. government’s most senior official for the 21-economy summit, Kurt Tong, will be joined by San Francisco city officials and California Host Committee members to brief consular officials and members of the media on plans for all summit-related events.
Set for September 2011, the APEC summit will include a first-ever joint ministerial meeting of energy and transportation ministers seeking to expand sustainable and zero emission technologies; government-business summits on women and the economy, digital prosperity, and healthcare innovation; and technical meetings covering topics from tourism to disaster management to seaport infrastructure.
This is the first time the U.S. has hosted the APEC summit since 1993.
“Hosting the APEC meetings in September will be a momentous occasion for the Bay Area and California,” said Jim Wunderman, President & CEO of the Bay Area Council. “This briefing will provide important information about the crucial international meetings that will happen in our state later this year.”
WHO: Kurt Tong, U.S. Government’s top official for APEC; Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation California Host Committee members; San Francisco city officials
WHAT: Briefing on plans for all APEC summit-related events
WHERE: The offices of Squire, Sanders & Dempsey, 275 Battery Street, Suite 2600, San Francisco
WHEN: 5:30pm – 6:30pm
Today, Tuesday, February 22, 2011
***All media planning to attend should RSVP to jarellano@bayareacouncil.org, 415-946-8725***
About the APEC Summit:
In 2008, the Bay Area Council, through its foundation and the Bay Area Council Economic Institute, created an organizing committee called CalAPEC to bid on and win APEC meetings for California. In September, the State Department announced that it had accepted the committee’s bid to host, in San Francisco, one of four major clusters of meetings this year. The San Francisco meetings, which will help finalize what President Obama and other heads of state will discuss in November, will be the largest high-level diplomatic meetings held in California since 50 countries signed the United Nations Charter in 1945 and 48 countries signed the San Francisco Treaty of Peace with Japan 1951. The other principal locations of APEC meetings in 2011 are Washington, DC (March); Big Sky Resort, Montana (May); and Honolulu, Hawaii (November). Host committee co-chairs include Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Mayor Ed Lee, George and Charlotte Mailliard Shultz, and Laura D’Andrea Tyson.
