Business leaders from the 21 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) economies urged the region’s leaders to maintain robust growth by guarding against protectionism and financial and sovereign risks in the face of weakening world trade and deepening global financial disorder.
“Given that there are only a few years before we reach the Bogor Goal of free and open trade and investment in 2020, APEC economies need to ensure that substantive progress continues to be made towards the Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific (FTAAP),” said Ziyavudin Magomedov, chair of the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) for 2012, during its second meeting on May 21-24 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
ABAC brings together up to three business leaders from each of the APEC’s 21 economies to apprise APEC leaders of the priorities and concerns of the business sector.
The advisory group stressed the importance of public-private dialogue to promote regional integration and bolster economic recovery. It called for an Asia-Pacific financial forum for private-public sector collaboration in developing “sound and efficient capital markets.”
It also recommended leveraging private-public partnerships to address transportation and logistics choke points caused by inadequate infrastructure.
In addition, ABAC called for greater focus on measures to enhance connectivity of regional supply chains and on the increasingly important issue of trade and investment in services.
To foster innovative growth, the business leaders called for steps to narrow technology gaps among APEC economies.
Photo: beggs
