APEC Hawaii Host Committee: We Are Ready
UPDATED 10/19/11 5 p.m.
The Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit is less than three weeks away — and the APEC Hawaii Host Committee says it’s ready for the spotlight.
Committee members have raised $4 million in donations, mostly from local and national businesses, and they’re pulling out all the stops.
A corps of more than 1,000 volunteers. A custom Tori Richard-designed Aloha shirt. Gift boxes — 9,500 of them — showing off 20 local products. A special 96-page edition of Hawaii Business magazine — called the “official publication of the Hawaii Host Committee.” A 60-minute infomercial pitching Hawaii to potential investors, to be played in 20,000 rooms in 30 hotels.
And then there are the parties. There’s a 3,000-person reception at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel. A 600-person trade reception hosted at the Bishop Museum by Sen. Daniel K. Inouye. A 500-person Chinese culture-themed gathering at the Honolulu Academy of Arts.
The mood was overwhelmingly positive at the host committee’s Wednesday meeting — the last before the big summit. Reporters were allowed to sit in as the committee members congratulated each other for a job well done.
“Just from the get-go, we’ve had tremendous support from the business community, from government — both federal, state and local — as well as just the community at large,” committee chair and Bank of Hawaii chief Peter Ho told reporters.
But there were some things the committee didn’t mention, such as road closures, preparations for protests and what will happen to city’s large homeless population.
APEC will hit Honolulu November 7 through 13. Hosted by President Barack Obama, the conference will draw delegates representing 21 countries and more than half of the world economy.
Near the top of the Hawaii host committee’s agenda is promoting the state as a prime spot to do business. A clip from the hour-long infomercial shows images of the sun, clouds and a volcano as a calm voice-over pitches Hawaii as a potential incubator for solar, wind and geothermal energy projects.
“Take only what you need, replenish the resource, sustain the community: That is the Hawaiian way,” the narrator says in the video.
Lt. Gov. Brian Schatz spoke with reporters after the meeting about the city and state’s infrastructure work. That includes road work on Nimitz Highway and Ala Moana Boulevard, sprucing up private properties and expanding broadband Internet access in downtown Honolulu.
Schatz said the road work, which has caused traffic delays, will be finished in time for the conference.
“Nimitz highway, Ala Moana Boulevard: All that will be pau1 by the time APEC comes around,” Schatz said. “And more importantly, it’s going to be pau for citizens.”
One part of the city and state’s “beautification” work included asking some landowners to clean up their properties.
“Rather than getting sort of a defensive response, or ‘I’m not going to participate,’ almost everyone we’ve contacted has been ready to spruce up their own private property,” Schatz said. “Once your neighbor is cleaning up, once the city is cleaning up, once the state is cleaning up, everybody wants to put their best face forward.”
