Asia-Pacific economies should facilitate the development of efficient and reliable supply chain systems to enhance cross-border business linkages in support of regional economic integration.
Transport ministers from the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation made the call during their APEC Special Transportation Ministerial Meeting last week.
The meeting, held in St. Petersburg, Russia, had the theme “Development of Integrated Supply Chains for Innovative Growth in the Asia-Pacific Region.”
The participants said improving supply chain systems includes supporting trade volume growth by determining ways to diversify routes to make the movement of people and goods easier, safer, and faster.
They also urged the adoption of intelligent technologies to increase supply chain connectivity in the Asia-Pacific.
A well-developed supply chain will play a key role in providing economic, energy, food, and environmental security in the region and globally, while liberalized transport services will boost cargo and passenger movement, they added.
“Building an optimal structure for transportation and logistical communications is perceived within APEC as a key factor of integration,” said Maxim Sokolov, Minister of Transport of the Russian Federation.
The goal of APEC economies is to achieve a 10 percent increase in regional supply chain performance by 2015.
A 10 percent improvement in supply chain connectivity would lift the region’s total real GDP by US$21 billion annually, according to APEC Secretariat Executive Director, Ambassador Muhamad Noor.
“The benefits would be substantially higher if behind-the-border increases in supply-chain connectivity were considered,” he said.
Photo: seaview99
