HISTORY OF THE CHILEAN PACIFIC FOUNDATION, 1994 – 2004
The origin of the Foundation is closely tied to the process of incorporating Chile into networks and institutions of economic cooperation in the Pacific region.

In 1980 the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (PECC) began to function as a network of National Committees made up of representatives from the public and private sectors as well as notable academics, from a growing number of countries in East Asia, Oceania and the Americas. The Chilean National Committee for PECC was made official by Decree 1.197 in 1985 with the mission of working with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Chile's participation in Pacific Basin cooperation schemes, including representatives from the public, private and academic sectors.
In 1991 together with Hong Kong, Mexico and Peru, Chile was officially incorporated into the PECC network.
In 1994, Carlos Figueroa Serrano, the first Minister of Foreign Affairs of President Eduardo Frei Ruiz Tagle asked the former Minister Secretary-General of the Presidency and former Rector (Chancellor) of the University of Chile, Edgardo Boeninger to form a privately held entity to take charge of matters of the Chilean National Committee for PECC as well as to advise the government on issues on APEC's agenda. Previously, at the 1993 APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting on Blake Island, USA, APEC had approved Chile's entry to this forum of regional integration. This implicated incorporation to various committees and work groups before the following Leaders' Meeting in Bogor, Indonesia.

Edgardo Boeninger possessed experience in Asia Pacific matters. He had previously performed consultations in this region and, from the Ministry Secretariat-General of the Presidency, he had collaborated in the political procedures involved in Chile's admission to APEC. On November 2, 1994 in the offices of the General Directorate of International Economic Affairs (DIRECON) Boeninger called together a group consisting of: Mrs. Pilar Armanet A. and Messrs. Roberto Angelini R., Ronald Bown F., Carlos F. Cáceres C, Marco Antonio Cariola B., Roberto de Andraca B., Juan Eduardo Errázuriz O., Felipe Larraín B., Eliodoro Matte L, Enrique Marshall R., Jorge A. Marshall R., Andrés Navarro H., Patricio Rodríguez R., Raúl Schmidt D., Carlos I. Smok U., Juan Gabriel Valdés S., Joaquín Vial R-T., Juan Villarzú R. and Italo J. B. Zunino M. The founding members signed the Statutes of the Chile Pacific Foundation, which had been written by lawyers Claudia Bobadilla, Alejandro Ferreiro, Manfred Wilhelmy and the legal advisor of DIRECON, Luis Gillet. Edgardo Boeninger was elected President of the new entity, which obtained legal status by Decree 1606, published in the Official Gazette on December 19, 1994. At the Board of Directors' first session, which was carried out that same day, Manfred Wilhelmy was designated Executive Director of the Foundation. From DIRECON, the PECC-APEC department directed by Cristina Bitar then began to transfer the administration of the PECC agenda to the new institution.

In September 1995 at the11th PECC General Meeting (PECC XI), the institution's Standing Committee elected Egardo Boeninger as its President for a two-year period, which entailed the responsibility of calling the next General Meeting at the end of that period. Chile acquired unprecedented prominence in Pacific matters, an opportunity which was used at PECC XII, the first high level meeting involving the whole Pacific region carried out in Latin America. Under the leadership of Boeninger, around 1,100 delegates met from September 30 to October 2 to discuss the topic 'Transpacific Partnership: Implementing Trade and Investment Opportunities'. Special guests included the President of Brazil, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, and the Foreign Secretary of Argentina, Guido di Tella, who headed important delegations from their respective countries, also in attendance was the Prime Minister of Malaysia, Dr. Mahathir Mohamed. At a multilateral level the conference included the presence of the Director General of the WTO, Renato Ruggiero, and at an inter-American level, Enrique Iglesias, the President of the IDB. During the conference 180 addresses were given on various economic topics and a special panel was carried out on the status of Hong Kong, which was recently beginning its post-colonial period as a Special Administrative Region of China. The book 'América Latina y Asia-Pacifico: Oportunidades ante la Crisis' ('Latin America and Asia-Pacific: Opportunities facing the Crisis'), published in 1998 by the Foundation and the Institute of International Studies of the University of Chile, summarized this notable meeting which laid the foundations of knowledge and experience that would allow the successful undertaking of the complex tasks of the Chilean presidency of APEC (2004).

In 1996 the government entrusted the Foundation with the position of National Secretariat for the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC), a task which has exceeded the realms of administrative coordination and has meant the active participation of entrepreneurs, generally members of the Foundation's Board of Directors, in the ABAC.
Another mission assumed by the Foundation in this period was to serve as an APEC Study Center, through which Chile fulfilled the commitment it had made at a political level to promote the research and extension of topics on the Pacific's regional agenda, in the academic sector.
At the beginning of 1998, Edgardo Boeninger left the Presidency of the Foundation to assume a seat in the Senate for a period of eight years. He was succeeded by Ambassador Juan Salazar Sparks who at that time held a high position in the multinational mining firm BHP.
In this period the Foundation assumed a new advisory role, working with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the agenda of the recently formed East Asia - Latin America Forum (EALAF, later FEALAC). The Foundation's principal task was to develop Latin American ties with Asia in the academic field, a result of which was a meeting in Santiago in 2000 and the later creation of a database of academic institutions in both regions. This project, FEALAC Academic Network (FAN), was financed by the IDB and carried out together with the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS) in Singapore.

In 1999 the Foundation re-edited Juan Salazar's book 'Chile y la Comunidad del Pacífico' ('Chile and the Pacific Community'), originally published by Editorial Universitaria in 1985.

Another main concern was the development of bilateral issues given that the Chilean trade policy was refocusing on the negotiation of free trade agreements, while China's dynamic economic rise was now a reality. In 1999 the Foundation together with 'Sociedad de Fomento Fabril' (the Federation of Chilean Industry) organized a seminar to analyze the economic relations between Chile and Korea, generating important antecedents for future FTA negotiations with Korea. With regards to China, the Foundation produced together with Fundación Okita of Buenos Aires, the report 'Estudio sobre el Mercado Chino' ('Study of the Chinese Market') which was one of the first of its kind in both countries.

In addition to the aforementioned and at the request of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the report APEC Economic Outlook 1999 was produced. The report, headed by economists Álvaro García H. and Patricio Meller, focused on the effects of the Asian Financial Crisis and the resulting recuperation efforts by the region's economies.
At the beginning of 2003 Hernán Somerville assumed the presidency of the Foundation. The new president had joined the Board of Directors in 1996 and was one of the three Chilean members of ABAC from 2000. At the end of the same year Somerville became president of ABAC in the APEC 2004 cycle, which was led by Chile. During the Chilean presidency of ABAC the idea of advancing towards a Free Trade Area of Asia-Pacific (FTAAP) arose for the first time. The idea, which was first suggested by Canadian businessman Pierre Lortie, was from then on promoted by Chile, and later by an increasing number of APEC economies. The ABAC 'Report to Economic Leaders 2004 – Bridging the Pacific – Coping with the Challenges of Globalization' page 12, recommends the continued study of the proposed FTAAP with the aim of presenting a detailed report to the APEC Leaders in 2005.
As important as the aforementioned, from the point of view of Chilean interests, was the APEC CEO Summit which was chaired by ABAC member Andrónico Luksic C. during the 2004 APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting. The summit was organized by the Foundation through a dependent unit directed by René Muga who at that time held a position at the Chilean Copper Corporation, Codelco, and was commissioned for the task by the company's Executive President and ABAC member, Juan Villarzú. The APEC CEO Summit brought together more than 600 high level corporate representatives from the entire region and was a perfect occasion to generate new business opportunities, strengthen Chile's image and consolidate its leadership in South America with regard to Asia-Pacific region relations.

In the framework of the 2004 APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting, the Foundation also organized the annual APEC Study Centers Consortium Conference with the collaboration of the Pontifical Catholic University of Valparaíso. The conference brought together more than 120 specialists from the region and was attended by representatives of European institutions and multilateral entities such as the World Bank and the OAS. The agenda included 13 panels, many of which enjoyed the valuable participation of entities such as ECLAC, the work group PECC Trade Forum and LAEBA, the network of economic studies formed by the IDB and the Asian Development Bank.