The idea of APEC was firstly publicly broached by Bob Hawke -Former Prime Minister of Australia- during a speech in Korea on 31 January 1989. Ten months later, 12 Asia-Pacific economies met in Canberra (Australia) to establish APEC. The founding members were Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore, and the United States.