APEC PLANS TO FREE AND OPEN TRADE TO ASIA-PACIFIC

Credits: APEC.org

APEC Ministerial Meeting in Manila, Philippines, 17 November 2015.- The Secretary of Industry and Commerce of the Philippines, Gregory Domingo, have delivered today a statement to the international press after a meeting with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Philippines, Albert del Rosario on the progress of the APEC Ministerial Meeting, held from 16 to 19 November in Manila.

Sunday mentioned that the 2015 APEC adopted the theme of building inclusive for building a better world economy. "This issue arises from the idea that the pursuit of APEC's free and open to the Asia-Pacific trade; we train and provide tangible benefits to both developed and developing economies and for a wide cross section of people, especially the most vulnerable."

The Secretary of Industry and Commerce of the Philippines noted that one of the main achievements of the Meeting of Ministers was to raise the concept of quality growth. "It´s growth that is sustainable, growth environment, sturdy growth, which places special emphasis on economic growth in rural areas. It provides opportunities for young people, equal opportunity for women, which opens the doors in particular to micro and small enterprises to participate in world trade. A growth is based on innovation."

The Secretary of Industry and Commerce of the Philippines said the APEC hopes to have a successful meeting with the World Trade Organization, as well as the MC10, the ministerial conference in Nairobi next month. Moreover, there are still ongoing support for the multilateral trading system. "We had long discussions on how to build the growth strategy of the leaders of APEC and endorse the APEC Strategy to strengthen the quality growth. We exchanged views on how to enhance trade in services and adopt a framework of APEC cooperation services. We take steps to implement the roadmap APEC's contribution to the implementation of the Free Trade Area of ​​Beijing Asia-Pacific."

"We have made progress on several initiatives related to global value chains. We discussed ways to improve connectivity and achieving a goal seamless, integrally connected and integrated to keep the Asia-Pacific region and take steps to implement the APEC connectivity plan 2015-2025 "; Secretary Gregory Domingo said.

On the work related to the environment, Domingo said that APEC has made significant progress to meet the commitment of the leaders in reducing tariffs on environmental goods list of APEC and support services related to the work ACEF “We have launched the APEC Virtual Knowledge Center for Services and update the data base service requirement."

On the micro, small and medium enterprises, or MSMEs, the Secretary of Industry and Commerce of the Philippines, said the delivery of the results of the Meeting of Ministers Responsible for Trade, including Boracay Action Agenda, which aims to globalize MSMEs and develop an implementation plan. The results of the Ministerial Meeting on Small and Medium Enterprises were also received, including Iloilo APEC Initiative SMEs for global development.

"Everyone recognizes that e-commerce is an important vehicle for MSMEs, allowing them to participate in the global market. In fact, this may be one of the most important for small businesses to participate in world trade tools. In addition, that would be a lot of effort put into promoting e-commerce platforms to enable MSMEs n the context of world trade", he said.

"We agreed on an action plan for the digital economy for MSMEs, which will lead to the agenda of MSMEs. We talked about the importance of encouraging financial institutions to assess business models and growth potential of the individual MSMEs", said the Secretary of Industry and Commerce of the Philippines, Gregory Domingo.