China Apec show awes Aquino: Can PH deliver?

BEIJING—President Aquino is so impressed by China’s hosting of this year’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) Leaders’ Meeting that he now wonders how the Philippines, next year’s host, can throw a party as spectacular as the one thrown by Beijing over the weekend.

The thought crossed his mind, Aquino told reporters before leaving for Burma (Myanmar) on Tuesday night, speaking to them about the wonders that China did for its first outing as an Apec summit host.

Aquino was all praises for the way China prepared for the welcome dinner and the accompanying entertainment hosted by Chinese President Xi Jinping for the Apec leaders at the Water Cube here on Monday night.

Fireworks show

The three-hour dinner ended with spectacular fireworks that lit up the skies over the Chinese capital as the leaders and officials from 20 Asia-Pacific countries and the people who gathered to watch it oohed and aahed in wonderment.

The President also admitted he was so awed that he couldn’t help but stare “intently” at the “almost wall-to-wall” painting inside the Water Cube.

“We have the talent, but how do you actually produce something on this level?” he said of the majestic interiors of the iridescent bubble wrap of the rectangular Water Cube, the site of the swimming events of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Deaf dancers

Equally mesmerizing for the President was the cultural performance at the welcome dinner for the Apec leaders, which included deaf dancers.

Aquino said he was impressed that the deaf dancers could follow music that they couldn’t hear.

Actually deaf dancers follow the beat of the music by feeling the vibrations on the stage with the soles of their feet.

“If I were to characterize one thing in the way they hosted it, especially this portion that I was actually [a witness] to, [it’s] the precision. The fireworks—you can’t see anything out of sync,” Aquino said.

“No one went first. No one went last. But maybe in our case, it’s going to be a little less precise,” the President said, voicing doubt about the Filipinos’ ability to match the Chinese show when their turn to host Apec comes next year.

President Aquino formally accepted from Xi on Tuesday the task of hosting Apec in mid-November next year during the closing ceremony of the Apec leaders’ meeting here.

‘Perfect hosting’

Interviewed by Reuters after his meeting with Filipino reporters, the President heaped praises on Xi for China’s “perfect hosting” of Apec.

“The precision, the perfection is, I think, sets a standard for us to try and at least match next year when we host Apec,” he said.

When asked about the Philippine preparations, Aquino said he did not want to disclose the plans so as not to preempt those behind the preparations themselves. He said the media would eventually be briefed on the details.

Talking business

Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima, meanwhile, said that in Apec 2015, the Philippines would convene for the second time only the Apec Structural Reform Group, which would be chaired by Secretary Arsenio Balisacan of the National Economic and Development Authority.

“This will [be] about the ease of momentum of labor, capital to make sure that the integration is just not trade but other areas also,” Purisima told reporters.

Business leaders have also taken up the task of hosting the Apec CEO summit—a dialogue between Apec leaders and businessmen in the region—which is scheduled on Nov. 15-17 next year.

It will be the second time that the Philippines will be hosting the Apec leaders’ summit, the first being in 1996 in Subic, Zambales province, under the administration of President Fidel Ramos.

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