Certainly the world knows where the Islands are without any action required to "put Hawai'i on the map," but a gathering of heads of state is a world stage and a new venture.

Without a doubt, the selection of Honolulu as the host city of the 2011 Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Leaders Meeting represents a golden opportunity to give Hawai'i the standing it deserves as a locale suitable for international business meetings of this caliber.

And, as U.S. ties with Asia become increasingly critical to national interests — something President Obama has rightly underscored — Hawai'i should be in a position to capitalize on that intensified focus.

With Obama's announcement Sunday that Hawai'i will be the site of APEC in two years, Honolulu becomes only the second U.S. city to host this gathering of heads of state and other ranking officials representing 21 economies of the Asia-Pacific basin. In 1993, Seattle was the site of the forum's debut.

The city last hosted an international meet in 2001 when the Asian Development Bank convened here.

APEC is even bigger, and Honolulu won out over stellar competition: Other contending bids included those from New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Miami.

Credit must go to the state, city and East-West Center advocates who demonstrated credibly that Honolulu has accommodations that can handle the thousands expected to arrive for the forum two years from now, and the crucial transportation infrastructure and security capability.

Now it must live up to the promises. This means the long-needed improvements to the airport, now in progress, must be kept on track. The visitor industry must ramp up for very important guests. And coordination meetings to assemble state, city and federal security resources must begin.

After all, said Ralph Cossa, the APEC meets routinely draw protests on multiple fronts.

"It could be a logistics and security nightmare," said Cossa, president of the Honolulu-based Pacific Forum Center for Strategic and International Studies, in an e-mail interview from Asia.

"I say this not to distract from the great honor or advisability of playing host but it will present challenges like nothing we have seen before ... remember, it is not just heads of government that gather. Foreign ministers and finance ministers and trade reps come with it."

These challenges can be met, and they must not overshadow what APEC represents. Hawai'i is home to the East-West Center, the Pacific Forum and other think tanks conversant in the issues faced by the region.

At last, Hawai'i can establish itself to be a premiere venue for nations to grapple with 21st-century needs.