Vancouver To Host Asia-Pacific Forum

Leaders from economic powers around the Pacific Rim will gather in Vancouver, British Columbia, for the 1997 summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum.

Vancouver beat out Calgary, Alberta, for the forum, which has been staged annually since 1993, when President Clinton invited Pacific Rim leaders to Seattle to discuss trade issues. This year’s forum wrapped up last month in Osaka, Japan, and the Philippines will host the 1996 gathering.

Vancouver expects to conduct more than half its trade with east Asia by the turn of the century, said Michael Francis, chairman of B.C. Trade Development Corp., the province’s economic development agency.

“It gives us a chance to impress them with our quality of life and the (public) safety of this city,” Francis said.

He said forum organizers are seeking advice from hosts of the 1993 Seattle forum, which generated 25,000 hotel room nights.