STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1719

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: H.C.R. No. 44

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2021

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Labor, Culture and the Arts, to which was referred H.C.R. No. 44 entitled:

"HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION URGING UNITED STATES PRESIDENT JOSEPH R. BIDEN, JR., AND THE ASIA‑PACIFIC ECONOMIC COOPERATION TO HOLD THE 2023 ASIA‑PACIFIC ECONOMIC COOPERATION SUMMIT IN HONOLULU, HAWAII,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to urge the President of the United States and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation to hold the 2023 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawai‘i Tourism Authority, Hawaii Automobile Dealers Association, one member of the Hawai‘i County Council, and one individual.

Your Committee finds that the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) is a regional economic forum established in 1989, that aims to create greater prosperity for the people of the region by promoting balanced, inclusive, sustainable, innovative and secure growth and by accelerating regional economic integration. Your Committee further finds that APEC's twenty-one member economies that generally surround the Pacific Ocean, represent over forty percent of the world's population and over fifty percent of the world's trade. Every year, one of the twenty-one APEC members plays host to APEC meetings (Summit) and serves as the APEC Chair. The host economy for the APEC Summit is responsible for chairing various meetings, including the annual Economic Leaders' Meeting, selected ministerial meetings, senior officials' meetings, the APEC Business Advisory Council, and the APEC Study Centers Consortium.

Your Committee finds that this measure focuses more on the benefits a hosting economy of an APEC Summit receives rather than the basis on which the President of the United States and APEC should hold the 2023 APEC Summit in Honolulu, Hawaii. Your Committee notes that the companion to this measure, S.C.R. No. 236, S.D. 1, establishes the reasons why Hawaii is the ideal location to hold APEC Summits. Therefore, your Committee finds that the language in S.C.R. No. 236, S.D. 1, is preferable.

Accordingly, your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Deleting its contents and inserting that of S.C.R. No. 236, S.D. 1;

(2) Adding the Secretary of State of the United States and Secretary of the Treasury of the United States as recipients of certified copies of the concurrent resolution; and

(3) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Labor, Culture and the Arts that is attached to this report, your Committee concurs with the intent and purpose of H.C.R. No. 44, as amended herein, and recommends that it be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means, in the form attached hereto as H.C.R. No. 44, S.D. 1.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Labor, Culture and the Arts,

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BRIAN T. TANIGUCHI, Chair