APEC members urged to get business moving again

Members of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum need to work to reconnect and revive business relationships with sustainable recovery a top priority, an APEC senior official from Thailand said on Thursday.

"When you take the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic into the grand scheme of things, it is vital for APEC to address how to encourage and make sure that we have more people travel and we have more people bringing business across borders," said Cherdchai Chaivaivid, director-general of the International Economic Affairs Department of Thailand's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Cherdchai was speaking at an online briefing held for members of the Asia News Network, an alliance of national newspapers in Asia. China Daily is the organization's only China representative.

Thailand, the host of APEC 2022, will hold the annual APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting on Nov 18-19 in Bangkok.

Noting that APEC members collectively account for 38 percent of the world's population, 62 percent of global GDP and 48 percent of global trade, Cherdchai said APEC remains relevant and useful for furthering regional economic cooperation.

The number of free-trade agreements across the Asia-Pacific region increased from 91 in 2008 to 186 in 2018, Cherdchai said, adding that the average applied tariff on APEC economies has also been reduced－to 5.2 percent in 2019 from 16.9 percent in 1989 when APEC was established.

"Most interestingly, we managed to address the issue of poverty," said Cherdchai. From 41.7 percent in 1990, the poverty rate was reduced to just 1.8 percent across the Asia-Pacific region in 2015, he said.

Though inclusive and sustainable growth has been a key topic since 2003, there is still a lack of discussion on issues like climate change, said Cherdchai, adding that APEC might not have done enough to address sustainability across the whole spectrum of the conversation.

While the forum has around 38 working groups and committees, "none of them deals exclusively with the climate agenda", said Cherdchai.

Thai Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman Tanee Sangrat, also director-general of the Department of Information, said invitations have been sent to leaders of all other APEC economies.