What is Asia – Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC)?
The Asia – Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) is a regional economic forum established in 1989 to leverage the growing interdependence of the Asia – Pacific region. APEC’s 21 members aim to create greater prosperity for the people of the region by promoting balanced, inclusive, sustainable, innovative and secure growth and by accelerating regional economic integration.
What does APEC do?
APEC ensures that goods, services, investment and people move easily across boarders. Members facilitate this trade through faster custom procedures at boarders, more favourable business climates behind the boarder, and aligning regulations and standards across the region. For example, APEC’s initiatives to synchronise regulatory systems is a key step to integrate the Asia-Pacific economy. A product can be more easily exported with just one set of common standards across all economies.
Membership Countries
Australia, New Zealand, United States, Canada, Mexico, Chile, Peru, Philippines, Vietnam, Thai– land, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Japan, Korea, Russia, China, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, Brunei and Papua New Guinea.
Sustainable and Inclusive Asia – Pacific
APEC works to help all residents of the Asia – Pacific participate in the growing economy. For ex– ample, APEC projects provide digital skills training for rural communities and help indigenous women export their products abroad. Recognizing the impacts of climate change, APEC members also implement initiatives to increase energy efficiency and promote sustainable management of forest and marine resources. The forum constantly adapts to allow members to deal with important new challenges to the region’s economic wellbeing. This includes ensuring disaster resilience, planning for pandemics, and addressing terrorism.
Cooperation and Consensus
APEC operates as a cooperative, multilateral economic and trade forum. Member economies participate on the basis of open dialogue and respect for views of all participants in APEC, all economies have an equal say and decision – making is reached by consensus. There are no binding commitments or treaty obligations. Compliance is achieved through discussion and mutual support in the form of capacity building projects to help members implement APEC initiatives.
Who participates in the APEC process?
APEC recognizes that strong and vibrant economies are not built by governments alone, but by partnership between government and its key stakeholders including the business sector, industry, academia, policy and research institutions, and other interest groups. In addition to APEC’s 21 member governments, APEC actively involves other key stakeholders in the work of the forum.
