Andrew Elek is Executive Director of Bellendena Partners, a small enterprise involved in economic consultancy, specialising in international economic cooperation issues, as well as in nurturing a small vineyard in Tasmania, Australia. He is also a Research Associate of the Economics Division of the Asia Pacific School of Economics and Government at the Australian National University and a member of the program advisory panel of the Foundation for Development Cooperation (FDC) based in Brisbane, Australia. He has worked extensively in development economics in South Asia and the South Pacific, including with the Government of Papua New Guinea and as a Senior Economist with the World Bank. From 1985 to 1987, Dr Elek served as Chief Economist in the Economic Planning Advisory Council of the Australian Government. From 1987 to 1990, he was head of the Economic and Trade Development Division of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. In 1989, he was the inaugural chairman of APEC Senior Officials, with a central role in the establishment of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation process. From 1990 to 1994 he was a Senior Research Fellow at the ANU, then became self-employed, thinking and writing about international economic cooperation. He has published many policy-oriented papers about the APEC process, with emphasis on the potential for capacity-building to promote mutually beneficial economic integration and development.