Social and economic issues are important agendas the Government must address, says Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Senior Official Meeting (SOM) Chair Ivan Pomaleu.
Pomaleu said these are long term challenges that need to be address amicably.
In continuation of the work done by the previous host of APEC, Vietnam, SOM Chair, Ivan Pomaleu is confident PNG is APEC ready come November.
However, he said the country needs to have a strong domestic production growth base, in order to benefit from the meetings conducted in the country.
“A strong domestic production growth base is very important in our country as we anticipate the APEC meetings in our shores.
He said in order to get better results from the APEC summit, we need to resolve some of the policy issues domestically.
He added that APEC comprises of multi-year programmes that have been endorsed by leaders but the main focus of host of 2018 APEC Summit will be on the Digital Trade and structural reforms.
Pomaleu further reiterated that rural areas needed to be connected to the digital trade and the Government through the APEC authority have been working around the clock to have an amicable solution to address such issues.
“We need to have cheaper internet rates and encourage our small medium enterprises to do business online.”