Business experts agreed to foster new relationships between Asia and Latin America in light of a new commitment to promote business engagements that would include the private sector, the public sector, the international community, and civil society.
High-ranking Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) officials and APEC Business Advisory Council members gathered recently at Inter-American Development Bank headquarters in Washington, DC, to highlight APEC’s main priorities for the 2008 Summit in Lima, Peru, to be held in November 17-22.
Ambassador Juan Carlos Capuñay, APEC Secretariat of Executive Director, focused on promoting public-private partnerships, building opportunities for small- and medium-enterprises (SMEs) and promoting their involvement in APEC’s efforts to increase effectiveness and competitiveness in the Asian-Pacific region. He also said that Asia and Latin America complement each other in many ways, for example while Latin America would benefit from more and better infrastructure, Asia needs raw materials and new methods of production to continue its growth.
The role of APEC, Capuñay explained, is to promote the relationship between Asia-Pacific and Latin America and to help introduce changes into the economy to create opportunities for the private sector in both regions. Within the APEC 2008 framework, Lima will be the gateway to bring together Latin American chambers of commerce and to strengthen the partnership between the two regions prior to APEC’s Singapore 2009 Summit.
Juan Francisco Raffo, APEC Business Advisory Council Chairman for 2008, added that concrete measures should be taken to make globalization work for all. These measures include further exploring the concept of a Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP), business facilitation to reduce transaction costs by another 5% and capacity building for growth such as education and SME development.
APEC experts focus on the critical role that SMEs play in the economy, but emphasized their difficulty to interact in trade agreements. Ambassador Capuñay added that FTA would need a chapter to support SMEs.
Ambassador Patricia Haslach, U.S. Senior Official for APEC, who pointed out the importance of corporate social responsibility in the development process, summarized that this year’s APEC focuses fall upon food and product safety, APEC seminars for SMEs and for avian influenza and capacity building such as education.
During his opening remarks, IDB President, Luis Alberto Moreno, highlighted the unique opportunity of this year to showcase the role of Latin America and the Caribbean as a strategic partner for Asia. He also emphasized how the IDB has been a catalytic partner that facilitates trans-pacific relations. "The IDB stands ready to redouble its efforts to support the deepening of trans-pacific relations," he added.
The IDB is providing technical and financial support to the Peruvian APEC Presidency to provide for the APEC 2008. The Bank’s technical teams are actively working with the Peruvian government on an analysis on the potential for increasing FTAs “convergence” in the APEC region. This study will be presented at the APEC Leaders Summit in November. The Bank is also working with the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) Secretariat to support the APEC CEO Summit in Lima to be held the same month.