BALI, Indonesia, (PNA/Xinhua) — Delegates attending the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation ministerial meeting were reminded to address three issues to ensure the accomplishment of welfare, sustainable and equitable growth among economies in the region that hosts 45 percent of global trade.
“Those three matters were to assure the accomplishment of Bogor Goals, assure inclusive growth that refers to equality and social welfare and accelerating growth in Asia Pacific region by addressing connectivity across the region,” Indonesian Foreign Affairs Minister Marty Natalegawa said in his speech to open the 2- day 2013 APEC Ministerial Meeting started here on Friday.
Marty acted as the co-chair of the session along with Trade Minister Gita Wirjawan.
“When we began our chairmanship of APEC in January this year, in the midst of global economic turmoil, we recognized that in the face of deep regional and global challenges and opportunities, we would need to walk that extra mile,” he said.
Prior to the ministerial plenary meeting, a series of meetings on APEC priority issues were held in several Indonesian cities throughout this year among senior officials from 21 economies.
Participants assessed member economies’ progress toward fostering a more resilient Asia-Pacific that can serve as an engine for balanced, sustainable growth with equity and improve global growth.
Other issues discussed at the meetings included multilateral trade system, women and small and medium sized enterprises empowerment, energy and food resilience, health, inclusive financial, infrastructure and investment development, cross-border education, emergency response and transportation facilities.
“Besides significant advancement in discussions on those issues, the senior officials had also reached agreement on APEC Framework on Connectivity, a cornerstone to further strengthen the cooperation between APEC economies regional integration,” Marty said.
Ministers also considered the multilateral trading system, and its role in making the Asia Pacific more prosperous.
“It is fair to say that our 2020 target of free and open trade and investment in the Asia-Pacific is not far from where we are now,” stated Gita Wirjawan.
On Saturday, the ministerial meeting would be held in two separated discussion panels, themed “APEC and the Evolving Regional Architecture,” and “Roadmap to Bali MC9 (The 9th WTO Ministerial Conference) and APEC 2013 First Priority, Attaining the Bogor Goals.”
After those panel discussions, the ministerial meeting would be concluded with a plenary session discussing efforts to attain equitable growth and improve connectivity among APEC economies.
Indonesia hosts and chairs the economic cooperation forum of economies in Asia Pacific region this year. The largest economy in the Southeast Asia, which posted positive growth above 6 percent in the last few years, Indonesia greatly expects APEC to pave the way for its exports amidst the present global economy downturn.
Indonesia’s exports to economies in the region accounted for 70 percent of its overall exports last year, or stood at 139.9 billion U.S. dollars.
APEC economies are considered to have vibrant markets as they host 17 to 18 trillion U.S. dollars of trade per year, or 45 percent of global trade. APEC economies also records 33 to 35 trillion U.S. dollars of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), or about 55 to 60 percent of global GDP.
Economies grouped in APEC are Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Chinese Taipei, Thailand, the United States and Vietnam.