Senior representatives from around the Asia Pacific, who gathered in Da Nang, Vietnam have urged APEC Economic Leaders to press ahead with structural and trade reform.
In their annual report to APEC leaders, released today, members of the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) called on leaders to show leadership on further liberalization of trade in goods and services as well as investment flows.
These issues will be discussed by ABAC members in their annual dialogue with APEC leaders this Friday.
“This means tackling structural reforms and non-traffic barriers, encouraging cross-border investment and maintaining the commitment to make the Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific a reality,” the 2017 ABAC Chair Hoang Van Dung said.
“We are seeing broad based economic recovery regionally and globally,” said Hoang.
“The IMF and OECD have projected that global GDP will increase by 3.7% next year, up from just over 3% in 2016, and trade flows are also recovering.
“But just as this recovery has taken longer to emerge from the 2008 crisis, so we need to create a more accommodative environment for sustained and inclusive economic growth in our region to ensure we don’t lose momentum,” he added.
“That means stronger action on deeper structural reform to boost productivity, wages and skills, and putting in place the right domestic policies to enable people and businesses to adjust to a more globalized world.”
ABAC was created by APEC Leaders in 1995 to be the primary voice of business in APEC. Each economy has three members who are appointed by their representative leaders. They meet four times in a year in preparation for the presentation of their recommendations to the Leaders in a dialogue that is a key event in the annual Leaders Meeting.