 connections. This is ThinkTech. I'm Jay Fidel. We're going to talk about APEC. APEC is coming to California. Now, what's interesting about that is that there are 21 nations in APEC, and it's the pros to rotate around the 21 nations. And we had it a few years ago. It's not our turn, but it is our turn. It's going to be to California. And Russell Hanra is here. Russell is the guy who wrote the master plan for APEC last time around, and he is actively involved in bringing APEC to California and making it happen in the old USA. Welcome to the show, Russell. Well, thank you, Jay. Thank you for inviting me to show again. I know last time we spoke was like in 2013, when Chile was hosting the APEC conference. And I know that after that in 2020, we had that COVID, and we kind of had to close down or in terms of go everything on viral and Zoom meetings, and hopefully the leaders could get together. And this year, we're going to have the APEC conference in Bangkok, Thailand in November. And I did prepare a strategic business plan for the APEC leaders there. And hopefully, as you know, Thailand is our oldest friend, ally and a partner that we had, and we had an agreement with Thailand in 1832. And hopefully, we had this agreement of economic commerce agreement, which we would do import, export, and be able to trade with Thailand on an equal basis. And hopefully, there's no prejudice or in terms of relationship. And we did treat the Thailand people. And back then, they had the Siam dynasty with the King Majesty there. And what happened was in after the World War II, Thailand eventually became a democratic country, and they wanted to close themselves out, and they didn't get involved with the Vietnam War or any good, then they didn't even get influenced by the French or the British when they were colonizing Asia. So actually, Thailand was one of the few countries in Asia that then wanted to go to war. So they believe in peace and harmony. And they do the Thailand people believe in the aloha spirit, just like we have in Hawaii. So they're really friendly people. And I hope their big success they have in Thailand this year. As in Hawaii, we have over roughly 3000 people of Thailand, national people that came here and started businesses and entrepreneurial type of restaurants and all that. So, and they have their military, they participate in the REMPAC exercise. And so we have a good relationship with Thailand. And so I wanted to share that with that with the audience here today. Yeah, a couple of things though. When is the APEC this year in Thailand? We're already into September. So when is the APEC supposed to happen in Thailand this year? Oh, it's going to be November. Through all the APEC conference is going to be November. So from the 14th, they're going to be having the leaders going to start coming in. And hopefully the 17th, 18th, that's when they're going to have the big summit with the presidents and the prime ministers get together and discuss their agenda. And hopefully this year they're going to be talking about working together, getting our economy back on our feet again and hopefully try to prevent the supply chain issues that we have with avoiding the recession. And hopefully, you know, as you know, Asia or the Southeast Asia countries are very sensitive when it comes to supply chain issues, because they're not as developed like we are in terms of developing nations. And we can, we have our manufacturing power and we can always export abroad. But countries like other Asian countries, they're very sensitive to those, the situation we have, even with the Russian crude oil and the gas that they're trying to weaponize every, you know, within terms of using their natural resource as a bargaining negotiation chip. And that's what's happening in Europe right now, because 40% of the energies and gas and natural oil, the pipelines are coming from Russia pipeline to Europe, in the European Union. So hopefully they're cutting down some of the countries are already shutting down the pipelines that's coming from Russia. So they have to look up for the alternative energy source for this coming winter. So that's an icon or the terminology you're going to hear is weaponizing using natural resource as a weapon. And that's what Russia is trying to do right now. And hopefully, as the United States, look at us, our crude oil, our gasoline consumption from last two months ago in July was like $7 a gallon. But now we're down to like $3.70 a gallon. So we're brought down the price of the oil and the gasoline at the pump station for our consumers here. So that's a good sign that we're not trying to, we're going to try to avoid major recession or, you know, in terms of installation of the prices escalating for the customers. So is this Thailand's regular year? Is it this, is this year the regular rotation for Thailand out of the 21 nations in APEC, which stands for Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation, by the way, it's an odd name. And it never says that it's an event or a gathering. It's just Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation. But is this the regular year for Thailand? Actually, in terms of the regular rotation, I know that they do vote, the members vote where they should held the next following two years. I know that what happened in last year in New Zealand, they voted to have it in Thailand. And the following year in United States and in year 2024 in Peru, it's going to host it. So the Biden members got to get together. And most most of the time, we try to look into the countries that need economic opportunity. And they're stable enough to host the leaders. And we thought Thailand was a good time for them to have this hosting the APEC conference there. Okay, next year, the United States, which is really out of the rotation. Why is that? Why is the United States going to be the venue for APEC in 2023 when it's not our turn? Well, I think, yeah, because I know that when we hosted in 2011, when President Barack Obama was the president. And the following year, I prepared the APEC master plan and when submitted that to the committee. But basically, I think that what the committee was looking at was the stability of hosting this kind of caliber of kind of conference. And I know that United States under this COVID situation as well with the situation in Ukraine, the invention from the Russian forces there, all of all above, we thought United States probably have a stable environment to host these leaders. And I think that might be a major factor under these circumstances that we live in right now. Yeah, so is it confirmed this is actually going to happen? The Biden administration is going to support APEC in California, I guess, in 2023? Well, they haven't made an official announcement yet, but most likely I know the President Joe Biden. And I know that our vice president, Coloma Harris, as well the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi wants to, and it's funny thing Nancy and Coloma, they're both from San Francisco, they're natives there. So I think they're going to have a little clout in the political decision making. And I think it's a good thing for California to have, because they are the fifth largest country in Warsaw, even though there are the state in the union, in terms of gross domestic product in the GMP and the sales that we produce, California's rank as the fifth in the world. They're bigger than France and England in terms of gross domestic sales. So in terms of business opportunity, I think California might be an ideal location to get everybody together this way. So what happens at APEC? Who comes? What level of leadership comes? And what do they do when they get here? Is it all government or is it also, you know, business? Well, actually, good thing you asked me that. You know, I mentioned that before in the previous engagement. So the think tech how I show that, you know, it is a voice of concern. We have a voice in the committee that for the private sector and the government, and we're the government leaders and the CEO of the blue chip or the multinational corporations get together. We have a concern there is a working group, like in the United States, we have three major leaders that are part of the ABC, which is called APEC business advisory council, and they have a working committee. And it's just like the United Nations. There's so many different committees from clean energy or unifying trade agreements for free trade, following the Bogar or Projara trade agreement of year 2040, we have medical needs or there's, you know, humanitarian efforts, there's different committees. And, you know, so we have a specialist that approaches that and, you know, we get a good voice of intelligence and cooperation from these individuals and countries that precipitates in the APEC conference. And today, did they make deals? Did they make deals and make business deals? Oh, yeah, obviously, obviously, there's a lot of deals going on, you know, in terms of joint venture partnership or in terms of construction, like an infrastructure arena that we're talking about bridges, highways, railroads, airports, harvests, you know, infrastructure all over in terms of construction needs. They all want to be partners in terms of working together. And every country, like in terms of this, my proposal I submitted on my strategic business plan was getting involved with the Euro Asia One Belt Run Road Initiative, like China is going through. And maybe using competing with China, we should all work together with the organization, like the European Union has 28 countries, actually 27 that Brexit, you know, England kind of pulled out, but they're kind of staying neutral right now. And APEC has 21 countries. So 28 plus 21, that's a big country, because we've got India and other countries on the side. And, you know, other countries who's not part of the union or in terms of the APEC organization, they all want to be part of it. And if they're going to go through their territory in terms of land, in terms of Euro Asia infrastructure, Euro One Belt Run Road Initiative route, like the Old Silk Road Initiative. Hey, if the organization gets it, at least everybody gets a fair share. Each country can have an equal representation. Well, let me let me ask you about that. So we have 21 countries in Asia Pacific that will ostensibly be there. They'll be in Thailand in November. They'll be in California in 2023. Are you telling us that Europe with the EU will be there? Are you telling us that Russia, you know, who is not necessarily our friend or the friend of Eastern Europe or Europe in general will be there? Are you telling us that China, who is more contentious every day will be there? All these countries will be in California in 2023? I think in terms of representation, I'm sure the working group will be there. We haven't isolated or told Russia, just because they went to the territorial, it's different. Asia Pacific's different in term of the European continent. So we're not trying to, but in terms of political arena, we still have to obey the US policy of the economic sanctions that we gave and we care about the Ukrainian people. We care about the free democracy and the agents care about being peaceful and have unity and unification. They all want to work together in harmony. And that is pretty much the Asian culture. I think in terms of religion that we have, the upbringing we have, the Asian people in general are peaceful people. And I noticed that through my upgrading and my exposure and my experience I have with them. So in terms of putting sanctions on Russia and Vladimir Putin coming here or not, I'm sure that I don't think he might not even get invited. If not, there will be some APEC Russia representation as well. China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, they get representation because of that one China policy. We're not going to kick out Taiwan or kick out Hong Kong. We're going to give Hong Kong and Taiwan the equal voice, equal opportunity. And that's what APEC stands for until otherwise. So now you wrote the master plan for the 2011 APEC, which took place here in Hawaii. Are you writing a master plan for the one that's supposed to take place in the U.S. in 2023? Actually I'm preparing a strategic business plan for California and hopefully I'm going to comply with all the memoirs of the other strategic business plan. I prepare even the nomination with the Nobel Peace Prize and other things, the resolution I prepare for North Korea with Kim Min-yoon trying to unite with one Korea policy that I prepared a resolution that I submitted to the United Nations Security Council on all that. So those kind of copies will be in this memoir that I'm going to prepare. And I might make, I'm thinking of combining a book kind of approach. Maybe I'll write up a book for this APEC conference and have a signing during the conference and have the European Union leaders come to the California summit and meet the APEC leaders. So we have 218 leaders. They have, they can do a group photo and they can have a dialogue and they can discuss issues and have a voice of concern. Not even the leaders don't have to come, but they can have some kind of representation through the committee and organizations that we have here. And Anisa, we can plant the seed for the future of the direction that we see. Eventually we're going to have to see the Eurasia come in, in place, but it's a matter of how we do it. If we're going to do it in a right fashion in a fair way for small countries, big countries working together, have an equal opportunity in terms of quality of life they're going to have. So for us, it's a better life for betterment of our humanity that we live in. So all above. And I think it's a good thing in terms of globalization working together. Some people take it negatively, but to me, what I see, you know, that might be the future for our human race here. Yeah, so what did they take it negatively about? What's wrong with it? I think in terms of, you know, some people think of supremacists in terms of, you know, they don't like the Asian culture or the language or the religion. So, you know, what we've seen like in the hate crimes all over the world, they kind of blame the other agents of what happened, you know, in terms of maybe because the COVID issue, I'm sure has to do with that. But, you know, in terms like I'm Japanese American, you know, they got Chinese American, they got Korean American, Vietnamese American, Laos, they all these different kind of national Hispanic Americans, you know, African Americans, you know, name it Pacific Islanders, you know, they all get somehow discriminated in certain ways. So, you know, I just want to avoid in terms of, so in terms of your Asia, if we can realize the differences and work together, that might be better for our future. But it's just a vision I see and that I prepare on my strategic business plan. Yeah. So, you know, Russell, in 2011, there were states, state governments were represented, certainly the state of Hawaii was represented. Brian Schoss was very active for APEC back in 2011, and it was good for Hawaii. Regrettably, it didn't continue. I mean, as a sort of a follow-up, ongoing meeting, then that was too bad. But clearly, there were states involved and people came from various places in the country to participate. So is that going to happen again in 2023? Will there be state representatives coming to California? I hope so. You know, when I was working on APEC, I know that when Brian Schoss was Lieutenant Governor, we did do the state office was in the Lieutenant Governor's office and the East-West Center was the headquarters. And I was more dealing with the East-West Center at the time being, and I prepared an APEC master plan. But if I can call back when Brian became appointed as a U.S. Senator under Governor Abercombe, I had to kind of take the torch and represent Hawaii as APEC Hawaii. So I did prepare numerous strategic business plans, then even try to get the TPP involved in the Trans-Pacific Partnership, make Hawaii the headquarters, because that was part of the Bogar Doctrine, which APEC Doctrine says that year of 2020, all APEC countries must have a free trade area in the Asia-Pacific region. And everybody, all the APEC countries was trying to get into either TPP or RSIP, Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership that China was pushing for and the ASEAN as well, as well with the ASEAN. So all of those things were coming in. And so I think hopefully the 2023 when the United States hosted, I hope we can come up with the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework that Joe Biden came up with in this May. That includes 14 countries and most of them were all TPP members and include plus two countries. Fiji and India is part of the Economic Framework for Indo-Pacific Asia. So that's great. And hopefully maybe we can have India be part of APEC organization, have them be part of the 22nd member of the APEC organization. And they're already a member of the Quad where United States, Australia, Japan, India and India form. It's a four-way multilateral kind of agreement in order to work together as a partnership. What about the military? The military had a certain presence in 2011. Is the military going to be involved in 2023? Oh yeah. Hopefully with the RIMPAC exercise. I know that close down to San Diego and up by California by San Fernando up to Seattle up in North. They have, we have our strategic command over there. So hopefully the military can be part of the RIMPAC exercise. We've been, we just had one this year. And that was part of my master plan too or in terms of getting all the APEC nation to participate in the RIMPAC exercise. So what happened was we got out of ministers through the defense to come to Hawaii and talk and work together in a political fashion in terms of bringing diplomacy before applying military might over Asia. So we had the defense ministers as well the admirals and generals during their exercise. So it was a good thing that Hawaii can host such a high caliber. And we're like the nato of Asia-Pacific here with the RIMPAC exercise. Over 50 countries participating on the by, you know, three years on turn around. So we're a mighty state if you want to call it in terms of military. Also is there any state agency, state organization, state, you know, official, state official, I mean, aside from you, of course, who is involved in planning for APEC next year 2023? Is there is there one agency that is cognizant of how Hawaii can interface with APEC? Oh, definitely. You know, you just hit the hammer under now is Seattle, the APEC National Center in Seattle, Washington. They're the ones that come up with the agenda. They're the ones that coordinate with the CEOs, the corporate businesses, have the blue chip corporate sponsors. So, you know, we've got Microsoft, Boeing, Amazon, name it Walmart, all the big national Merrill Lynch, you know, the finance and, you know, the insurance company, the accounting firms, and, you know, we have we have we have. Is there any agency in the state of Hawaii who's involved? Oh, I guess just me with APEC Hawaii, I coordinate with APEC National Center and APEC headquarters in Singapore, where the executive director is Rebecca Fatima Santa Maria. She's the executive director of she's actually the ambassador holds the title. And she's our leader for the APEC organization. That's quite a prestigious job to be an ambassador, a national ambassador to APEC, isn't it? At any meeting, for example, United States would have an ambassador to APEC, right? Exactly, exactly. And hopefully, we mean, as a matter of fact, we did a Morati. Lauren Morati was she was our APEC first Hawaiian APEC Hawaiian ancestry ambassador, where George Bush appointed her. And she's pretty, I see her once in Hawaii at the East West Center. I know her father, her husband is also a US ambassador Morati. So we do have some past credentials in Hawaii that has and I'm just a newcomer still and I just have only like 10 years experience with APEC, you know, that that I've been doing my master plan and my strategy, but people with people that worked up the ranks, we still have them. I'm glad that we have a lot of scholars and these kind of former diplomats in Hawaii that retired here. Yeah. So what what would you be doing? I know, you know, you're writing the business plan for the 2023 APEC, but what will you be doing between now and then to organize it, put it in motion? Are you interfacing with organizations, for example, the one in Seattle you mentioned with the federal government? What are you, what are you connecting with in anticipation of the next APEC that is happening in 2023 in the United States? Well, I'm glad you asked me that matter of fact, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken asked me when we're on his messenger that we talked to get on the Facebook and stuff, but he asked me what I wanted to do and I kind of mentioned to him and I've been kind of moving forward. We want to make an APEC Hawaii delegation team to go there and possibly to participate in their trade show, have a pavilion there like an expo because I know when California hosts, it's going to be tremendous amount of exposure they're going to have. You know, can you imagine all those high tech industry, the financial industry, the entertainment, the sports, the Hollywood and you know, all those razzle dazzle being the fifth largest country in the world, you know, in terms of, so they're going to put up a big show for us and hopefully if we can participate and be like the host committee and passing the torch from Hawaii to California since what happened was, I remember like 2010 before Hawaii was hosting it, California and San Francisco Chamber of Commerce had a committee to make Hawaii the following year with Barack Obama being the president. So actually San Francisco Chamber of Commerce helped us to bring APEC to Hawaii. So what I would like to do is in return, we would like to help California have a successful APEC conference next year and if we can get all these past governors together and they can do some kind of talk show or a speech on the platform that we're going to have in the trade show and in the Hawaii venue like Governor Ariyoshi, Wahey, Cayetano, you know, Neil Abercom, Linda Lingo, even Igay, so on with Josh Green or whoever the next governor is going to be, they can talk about their ancestors, Ariyoshi can talk about the Japanese ancestors and how he was brought up, Hawaiian and you know, John Wahey can talk about his Hawaiian ancestors and then Pacific Islanders and Cayetano can talk about the Filipino and I wanted to bring one more governor besides what? Governor from Washington State, Gary Locke, the first Chinese American governor and the U.S. ambassador to China. If he can precipitate in this conference and talk about the Chinese side of being the first Chinese American, I think that's going to attract a lot of people in the Asia-Pacific leadership. Oh, Hawaii has that, huh? They can give you opportunities for these Asian people to become somebody and that's what America is all about and hopefully we can showcase all that. I want to give you the opportunity to, you know, summarize where we are, where you are, where Hawaii is, where the United States is in terms of hosting and being the venue for the APEC in 2023. What would you like people to know about? What would you like people to think about? What would you like to encourage them to do to support and to be aware of what's going on in preparation for APEC 2023? Actually, I kind of already talked to some of the leaders already for the Chamber of Commerce, Sherri McNamara. She can do like that top of the hill, the Chamber of Commerce did in Capitol, the U.S. Capitol, with Maisie Hirona, the U.S. Senator, something like that, but maybe in a bigger upscale, get all the musicians involved. Maybe they can go there, show their music venue and work with the Californian or the U.S. musician and venue that as well. And we can have the hula girls, the dancers to go there as well. And even I got the Hawaii Tourism Authority. I just sent them my email telling them that this is going to be happening. We want the tourism to support Californian Hawaii as well. As a matter of fact, the Hawaii Hotel Lodging, Mufi Hanuman, I told them personally to follow up and make sure which hotels the U.S. is going to be hosting it, just like when we hosted in 2000 and then we used Hilton Village, the lesser President of Barack Obama State. So, California is going to have each hotel is going to be designated for each leaders and their country delegation. So, hopefully, hopefully they can do that and go from there. And, you know, I just want to get all the leaders and the players together. I got the East-West Center involved, Charles Morson and Richard Volstick and Susie London, the new president and even David Lassner of U.H. to coordinate with the universities in California on this venue. And maybe the scholars at the East-West can prepare a term paper or some kind of research paper submitted to the APEC company like I did. That's how I got involved and gives the scholars the opportunity to showcase their thesis or whatever research paper they're doing and there is a venue for that. So, I wanted to get that kind of people or, you know, have a wise representation. We want to make an all-star kind of team here for APEC delegation for APEC Hawaii and make President Barack Obama our president for that team. Okay, Russell, we're out of time. I'm sorry. Russell Hanra, the draftsman of the APEC 2011 master plan and who's now working on the strategic business plan for the APEC that will take place in California, hopefully in 2023. Thank you so much, Russell, for joining us for this discussion. Thank you, Jay, and I hope it works out, but we'll keep in touch and see what happens. Thank you. Okay, Aloha. Thank you so much for watching Think Tech Hawaii. If you like what we do, please like us and click the subscribe button on YouTube and the follow button on Vimeo. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn, and donate to us at thinktechhawaii.com. Mahalo.