The task is enormous. So it would be wrong to dismiss APEC and say it has not delivered. But it needs mechanisms. It needs to put its diverse house in order. The business sector certainly wonders what APEC has accomplished.
Businessmen have direct access to the leaders.
There is a channel for their problems and frustrations to be adopted into a hierarchy of priorities for the leaders to address. We started with very little contact and cooperation among us. Yes, we need time to consolidate. But to dismiss APEC as not having delivered anything would be wrong. To say we should go back to bilaterals would be withdrawing to the old style of managing our relationships, which is not what the age of globalization is about.