APEC officials meet against a backdrop of economic and geopolitical challenges to collaborate and focus on building a more resilient and inclusive future for the region.
The third batch of APEC technical meetings is underway in Chiang Mai, a city some 700 kilometers north of Bangkok, and is attended by nearly 2,000 policymakers, officials and private sector representatives from 21 economies.
The group of meetings will culminate in a two-day plenary session of senior officials on August 30-31, chaired by Thani Thongphakdi, Permanent Secretary for Foreign Affairs of Thailand and 2022 Chairman of the APEC Senior Officials.
This will be the last meeting of the year before APEC Senior Officials prepare for Leaders’ Week from November 14-19.
The economic outlook
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) forecasts that the world economy will slow down to 3.4%, before slowing further to a rate of 2.9% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2023.
The same scenario is expected in APEC, where a recent report projects that the region’s economy will grow more slowly than expected, 2.5% this year and 3.4% next.
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“This is a particularly difficult time to be a political leader. We have to continue to focus on building a more resilient, inclusive and sustainable future, because this is the key to protecting the region from crises,” said Rebecca Sta Maria, Executive Director of the APEC Secretariat.
“The intensification of uncertainty caused by recent events carries the risk of mistrust in globalization, in multilateral institutions and in others,” he said.
“Although there is no denying that the disagreements have dotted multilateral forums and are important, they should not prevent APEC member economies from coming together to prevent something as existentially reprehensible as climate change, which will not be fixed, not even resolved. will manage, with a world divided into different blocks ».
On the eve of the group of technical meetings and the APEC Economic Leaders Week, Sta Maria reiterated that organizations such as APEC will play an important role in rebuilding the world economy by strengthening political coordination and regional cooperation through when it comes to adopting economic resilience policies, as well as ensuring trade transparency and predictability.
The rest of the APEC agenda
Together with the group of technical meetings, there will also be various ministerial and high-level meetings.
First, the APEC Tourism Ministerial Meeting will be held in Bangkok on August 19 and will be chaired by Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn, Minister of Tourism and Sports of Thailand.
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Reflecting the serious impact of the pandemic on the travel and tourism industry, the meeting will focus on rebuilding and rethinking tourism for the future, making it more inclusive and sustainable, and paying more attention to the internal well-being of tourism destinations.
The APEC Forest Economy Ministers’ Meeting will also be held in Chiang Mai on August 24.
This will focus on addressing forest-related issues, such as combating illegal logging and related trade, promoting trade in illegally harvested forest products, strengthening forestry cooperation in the region, as well as advancing the work of sustainable management, conservation and restoration of forests.
The APEC High-Level Meeting on Health and the Economy will be held in Bangkok on August 25-26. It will focus on strengthening the preparedness of economies for pandemics and responding to future health threats in a holistic way – through investments in global health security – while promoting the application of new technologies and continuing to share experiences and good practices.
Finally, the Ministerial Meeting on Food Security will be held virtually on August 26 and will be chaired by Chalermchai Sri-on, Minister of Agriculture and Cooperatives of Thailand.
Countering a food crisis and ensuring food security in the region is also one of APEC’s priorities. Last year, ministers agreed on a 10-year roadmap for food security. This year, Thailand will lead discussions to put the roadmap into action and build resilience against the risk of disruption to international food trade.
“In the current challenging environment,” Sta Maria continued, “multilateral institutions like APEC have a role to play in helping us meet these challenges in a coordinated, integrated and cohesive way, and ensure that our work ultimately brings benefits to the population of the region.
“We will continue to emphasize effective partnerships and cooperation across our region, including between the public and private sectors, specifically the APEC Business Advisory Council, and other regional forums and key stakeholders, including the youth of our region,” concluded.
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