New policies to benefit APEC members in long-term — senior officials
Senior government officials from Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) member countries believe new policies being introduced today should benefit their people in the long-term, especially as the economies move to promote “inclusiveness.”
“We will know that we are successful in what we are doing when our own people feel the incremental improvement in their lives,” Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Laura del Rosario said during her opening remarks at the APEC Concluding Senior Officials’ Meeting (CSOM) held yesterday in Pasay City.
“We also hope in the coming years, our work for this year and the past years would have answered many questions taking into account the movement we have started in pushing for both trade, investment and development agenda in APEC,” del Rosario, who chairs the CSOM, added.
APEC member economies have not only focused on promoting trade and investment, but also on a development agenda which includes a wide range of issues from women and human resources to environment and climate change, and from health and water to food and nutrition.
Technology and coping with it are also among the challenges the governments in the region face as they try to regulate and facilitate these developments.
Del Rosario said she also hopes “efforts to promote the diff usion of new norms in economic policy which promote inclusiveness” be felt in the medium- to long-term by the APEC member economies.
At the same time, “tangible results” are being expected from programs put in place to address “everyday concerns” of people living in the APEC member economies.
“The economy is made up of many moving parts, so therefore, we cannot talk about one aspect then say the others can wait… We have to make sure that all the systems are good and that we are taking care of all the moving parts,” del Rosario said of the different policies being introduced through the APEC.
The CSOM would be coming up with a joint ministerial statement following their meeting yesterday.
Del Rosario said officials during the meetings since Thursday night have been managing all the suggestions before they publish the statement.
The Philippines is this year’s host to the APEC Summit and meetings were earlier held in Clark (Pampanga), Iloilo, Boracay, Cebu, Davao, among others. The meetings culminate in an Economic Leaders’ Meeting next week which will be held in Manila.
This year’s APEC meetings all hover around the theme, “Building Inclusive Economies, Building a Better World.”
APEC, whose members include Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Chinese Taipei, Thailand, United States, and Vietnam, promotes sustainable growth and prosperity among its member economies.