MESSAGE FROM THE CO-CHAIRS OF PECC

On behalf of the members of the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council it is our great pleasure to present our 16th annual State of the Region report. The objective of this report is to provide an assessment of the key issues affecting the region and the challenges to creating stronger and deeper ties across the region. To do so we are indebted to the 544 respondents to our annual survey who took the time to share with us their views. We stress that this is not a survey of public opinion, but of the regional policy community – stakeholders from business; government; academia; media and civil society.

In what is an incredibly diverse region with per capita incomes ranging from just over US$1,000 to around US$70,000 and giant continental sized economies to islands we are struck by the general levels of convergence on the risks we face as a regional community as well as what we need to do. Where there are differences, we try to highlight them, not as issues that divide the community but to learn where more work needs to be done to build common understanding. One interesting point to note is that over the years is that differences in views among stakeholders have been far smaller than those among different sub-regions. This points to the value of enhanced stakeholder engagement in regional policy-making as APEC Leaders have instructed in the Aotearoa Plan of Action. While differences exist, developing platforms for enhanced dialogue on issues of common concern need to be strengthened and deepened as APEC moves ahead to try to create an open, dynamic, resilient and peaceful Asia-Pacific community by 2040. 

To paraphrase one of the founders of PECC as well as ASEAN more than 50 years ago and a former Thai Foreign Minister Thanat Khoman, “regional groupings stress a close working relationship between the participants who share similar ideas and aspirations. Ultimately. they aim at encompassing all [economies in the region] even though they may have dissimilar international and domestic policies as well as different political, economic and social systems.” That spirit of inclusiveness and openness has served our region well and needs to underpin the path ahead.

Important for APEC is that its own members demonstrate a firm commitment to the vision and implementation plan they have set out. It is clear from the results of our survey that stakeholders are worried about the fragmentation of the global economy and the implications this has for how we deal with other issues – including inclusive and sustainable growth. Looking back in the history of APEC, as long ago as 1993, its own Eminent Persons’ Group warned that the further escalation of trade conflicts ‘could have a chilling effect on future economic exchanges’. And that ‘[n]ew economic ties that bind the two rims of the Pacific together could thus help secure their peace, as the EC did in Europe, even if they remain largely marketdriven and even if they did not address the security issues directly.’ We therefore warmly welcome the work done by Thailand as this year’s APEC host to bring together regional economies to not only have a refreshed conversation on regional economic through the Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific but also to initiate and mainstream work on sustainable growth and climate change through the bio-circular green economy. 

We hope that this report will help to shed light on some of the challenges we face as a nascent community and how we can work together to begin to address them. Finally we express our great appreciation to the Editorial Committee of this report who provide guidance and identify topics of common concern and the authors, Mr Eduardo Pedrosa, Dr Sherry M. Stephenson and Dr Mia Mikic and Prof Michael Plummer.

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