APEC Ministers have approved Ambassador Park Sang-ki as the new Chair of the APEC Counter Terrorism Task Force. Ambassador Park, who is also Korea’s Ambassador for…
APEC Ministers have approved Ambassador Park Sang-ki as the new Chair of the APEC Counter Terrorism Task Force. Ambassador Park, who is also Korea’s Ambassador for International Counter-Terrorism Cooperation, will serve for two years as Chair beginning in January 2007.
During his term as Chair, the CTTF will coordinate APEC activities relating to a number of new APEC Counter Terrorism initiatives that will strengthen regional security.
A thirty-year career diplomat, Ambassador Park has served in Korean overseas missions in China, Europe, Africa and the United States. Ambassador Park said he will build on the work of the previous two terms of the CTTF to enhance security in the APEC Region.
“Terrorism remains a substantial threat to the lives of people and the economic well being of the Asia-Pacific Region,” Ambassador Park said.
“APEC plays a pivotal role in coordinating counter-terrorism efforts between our 21 Member Economies across a wide range of sectors and industries. APEC is developing initiatives to deal with the terrorist threat in areas such as strengthening aviation security, protecting the food supply and preventing the misuse of financial infrastructure by terrorists.”
The 2007 CTTF work program will include new initiatives such as the Aviation Security Quality Controls to mitigate the terrorist threat to the international civil aviation network. The program includes Member Economies coordinating in order to develop and implement effective civil aviation security quality controls by the end of 2007.
The CTTF will also establish an aviation security point of contact network to improve communications and identify gaps in aviation security networks in the event of urgent aviation security threats or incidents. The task force has agreed to establish a business resumption point of contact network with the aim to ensure rapid communication in the event of a major terrorist attack with an impact on border operations.
To consolidate the work of these networks, the CTTF has developed with the APEC Task Force for Emergency Preparedness an ‘APEC Emergency and Rapid Reponses Points of Contacts Network’ that can be called into immediate action in the event of a terrorist attack or other disaster such as a disease pandemic. These contact points include people in each APEC economy that will be instrumental in reducing the impact of a disaster including principal disaster coordinators, emergency management agencies, chief medical officers and chief veterinary officers.
Ambassador Park will be the third CTTF Chair following Ambassador Benjamin Defensor from the Philippines (2005-2006) and Ambassador Makarim Wibisono from Indonesia (2003-2004).
The CTTF was established at the end of 2002 to identify and assess counter-terrorism needs, coordinate capacity building and technical assistance programs and facilitate cooperation in the APEC Region on counter-terrorism issues.
