The 25th APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting is aimed at looking for ways to push forward regional economic development amid a rising sentiment of anti-globalization and trade protectionism.
This was according to Dr. Alan Bollard, Executive Director of the APEC Secretariat.
“We are expecting to see ministers and then leaders sign up to a program of deliverable that will continue the story that APEC has been doing, which is helping the region get together economically, and as it does, helping growth in the economies and helping improve living standards,” he said.
According to him, it “has been a big story in the past, and we think it’s still got quite a long way to go.”
“So we expect to see some developments around inclusive economy, how to make sure the benefits of the growth are going through the economy,” he explained.
He said they expected to see “developments about things like electronic commerce and internet economy, particularly for small business.”
He said they were looking for “some initiatives about regional economic integration, helping connect up the economies as well.”
Bollard said APEC is trying out “new recipes” for regional growth, ensuring the trend of globalization will move forward instead of going backwards.
“We’ve seen some new policies. We’ve been getting more discussions on just what those mean exactly. They don’t mean less trade. I think they mean more trade, but there is concern from some economies about the rules of the trade. But for APEC – APEC is different. We’re not legally binding. We’re a voluntary group of economies, which get together, and only talk about economics, living standards, and ways to improve that. So, we’re a place where we try to staff out,” Bollard noted.
He said that there would be more agreements in Asia.
“There’s a complicated noodle bowl in Asia, a noodle bowl of agreements. We try out new recipes, better recipes. We get the recipes from right around the region; try them and the ones that work, all the economies will use. So actually we all need APEC even more now,” the executive director of the APEC secretariat added.
Bollard also said the APEC is shifting to tackle new challenges after 2020.