By Linda Khoo Hui Li
BANGKOK, Nov 12 (NNN-Bernama) — Thailand, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) chair next year, is committed in ensuring the continuity of the APEC Putrajaya Vision 2040 by pursuing the forum’s three economic drivers.
The three drivers are – trade and investment, innovation and digitalisation, and strong, balanced, secure, sustainable and inclusive growth.
Prime Minister Prayuth Chan o-cha said Thailand will continue APEC’s work to keep markets open through the rules-based multilateral trading system.
“At the same time, we will take advantage of the opportunity to re-think APEC’s conversation on trade and investment…that reflects the evolving needs and interests of businesses and our wider communities,” he said at the APEC CEO Summit 2021 held virtually on Friday.
“This is the engine driving our APEC host year priorities,” he said.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is to chair APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting (AELM) virtually later tonight with all 21 APEC Economic Leaders expected to participate in the meeting themed “Join, Work, Grow, Together”.
“I believe that our theme and priorities echo the call by the business community to revitalise our economies, and make them stronger and more resilient,” he said.
Meanwhile, in facilitating trade and investment, Prayuth said the region must be reconnected again.
“It is our priority to safely and seamlessly resume cross-border travel.
“Progress towards reconnecting the region is essential to APEC’s path to recovery. Therefore, restoring connectivity will be one of our priorities next year, and we will pursue APEC’s recommendation to come up with a way to strengthen coordination and drive APEC-wide work on safe passage,” he said.
He added that APEC needs to be ever more connected in the longer term, harnessing digitalisation and innovation to further facilitate cross-border movements within APEC to ensure a healthy flow of goods, services, business people and the public at large.
APEC launched the Putrajaya Vision 2040 in November 2020, under which the world’s most dynamic regional economies will cooperate toward building an open, dynamic, resilient and peaceful Asia-Pacific.
— NNN-BERNAMA