The business community in Sydney, Australia's largest city, is taking the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders Week in its stride with a high level of understanding and preparedness, a survey released Sunday found.
The survey came as the conclusion meeting of APEC senior officials opened Sunday in the city, marking the beginning of the Leaders Week which will culminate in the leaders summit meeting on Sept. 8 and 9.
The survey was conducted by the New South Wales (NSW, the state with Sydney as its capital) Business Chamber and the Sydney Chamber of Commerce.
The survey of businesses across the Sydney Metropolitan area has found that over 99 percent of businesses are aware of the APEC public holiday on next Friday (Sept. 7) and most have planned for the impact of APEC or are finalizing their plans.
"Clearly the message that Friday is a public holiday has been heard loud and clear by business across the entire city, not just in the CBD, but as far out as suburbs such as Emu Plains, Sutherland, Hornsby and Palm Beach" said NSW Business Chamber CEO Kevin MacDonald.
Over 80 percent of businesses had finalized or were finalizing their operating plans for the APEC week, while 85 percent of businesses intended to operate normal hours on the days around the APEC Public Holiday with only 5 percent of businesses changing their operating hours.
The survey also discovered that 85 percent of businesses were confident that their security procedures were adequate to protect their businesses from possible security threats.
"These results clearly indicate that the business community is confident that they can continue to operation their businesses effectively during APEC," MacDonald said.
The authorities earlier announced next Friday a public holiday as part of security measures during the Leaders Week.
Source: Xinhua
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