By Alvin Foo

SINGAPORE'S hosting of this year's series of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) forum meetings is expected to cause as little public disruption as possible.

And the budget for hosting the meetings - at just over $100 million - is unaffected by the financial crisis, as the events were never intended to be extravagant, said the organising committee at a media briefing yesterday.

In comparison, Australia reportedly spent slightly more than A$300 million (S$363 million) hosting the Apec meetings in 2007. In 2006, the eight days of World Bank-International Monetary Fund meetings here cost about $100 million.

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