Seminar highlights connectivity in Asia-Pacific

Connectivity and inclusive growth in Asia-Pacific was the theme of a recent seminar coorganised by the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (PECC) and the Boao Forum for Asia in Bali, Indonesia.
Connectivity and inclusive growth in Asia-Pacific was the theme of arecent seminar coorganised by the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council(PECC) and the Boao Forum for Asia in Bali, Indonesia.

Theseminar took place within the framework of the Asia-Pacific EconomicCooperation (APEC) summit and relevant meetings that run from October1-8 in Bali.

It aims to support APEC 2013’s theme of “ResilientAsia-Pacific, Engine of Global Growth” that prioritises trade andinvestment liberalisation, sustainable growth with equity and regionalconnectivity.

At the seminar, the PECC said US and Japaneseeconomies have shown more positive signs and the worry over economicslowdown has shifted from developed countries to developing ones.

Therefore,the council called on developing economies to step up infrastructuredevelopment in order to benefit from regional integration in accordancewith the goals of accelerating connectivity and expanding trade andinvestment liberalisation set by regional organisations such as the APECor ASEAN as well as evolving multilateral trade cooperative mechanismssuch as the Trans-Asia Pacific Partnership (TPP) or the RegionalComprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) of the ASEAN.

Delegatesat the event warned that while the Asian-Pacific region continuedmaintaining its economic momentum, the development gap between regionalcountries has been widened.

Emerging economies are facing anurgent task to speed up structural reform while pursuing connectivityand integration with other economies in the region, they said.

ThePECC laid stress on the need for developing economies to stand ready interm of human resources, training, infrastructure and basic servicessuch as water, hygiene and electricity to extract the rise.

According to the council, the ASEAN has taken the lead in term of bothperformance and multilateral trade cooperative initiatives over the pastthree years.

The PECC is a non-government body inAsia-Pacific, serving as a regional forum for cooperation and policycoordination to promote regional economic growth and development.-VNA

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