Senior Officials of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) met at the two-day Senior Officials’ Meeting (SOM) in Sendai, Japan to discuss key reports and recommendations on enhancing trade and investment in the Asia – Pacific region.
The discussed reports and recommendations will be submitted to Ministers and Leaders of member economies when the meet in November.
Delegates at the meeting focused on APEC’s 2010 initiatives including its “high-quality” growth strategy, assessment on progress of the Bogor Goals and the way forward on greater regional economic integration.
They made progress on the substance of APEC’s growth strategy, which aims to improve the quality of economic growth in the Asia-Pacific region in the wake of the global financial crisis, and identifies five key areas to target.
Mr. Shigeru Nakamura, APEC Japan 2010 Senior Official Co-chairman said: “Is it clear that member economies cannot continue with ‘growth as usual’ and the quality needs to be improved so that it is more balanced, inclusive, sustainable, innovative and secure.”
Senior officials also held discussions on the substance of a report that assesses APEC member economies’ progress on free and open trade. The assessment report on meeting the Bogor Goals will also be presented to Ministers and Leaders in November.
Officials also focused on the way forward on APEC’s strategy for structural reform. APEC is undertaking initiatives aimed at making it easier to do business by reducing “behind-the-border” barriers to trade, such as reducing unnecessary and costly regulations and reforming competition policy.
They also focused on ways to accelerate regional economic integration, including possible pathways to a Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific.
The APEC Senior Officials’ Meeting is the third this year, and officials will gather again in November to finalize recommendations for Ministers’ and Leaders’ meeting, which takes place later that month.
(CPV)
