Macroeconomics/Apec

Editorial team

APEC recommended Apec leaders under the concept of ‘embrace, engage, enable

The private sector, under the lead of APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC), the host and chairman of the ABAC 2022 meeting and APEC CEO Summit 2022, under the concept “embrace, engage, enable”, is ready to deliver recommendations and ways to drive the economy to the policy sector at the APEC 2022.

ABAC is the private-sector arm of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation. The main mandate of this council is to deliver recommendations to APEC leaders in the annual meeting and to advise APEC members on the business sector’s concerns and important issues.

ABAC meeting will be held 4 times per year. In the meantime, ABAC members will join the senior officials meeting, annual ministerial meeting, and APEC’s ministerial meeting, which are held all year.

In the past year, the Asia Pacific region has faced significant disruption from the COVID-19 pandemic, challenges from war, food crisis, energy crisis, and inflation, etc.

The delivery of recommendations by the ABAC 2022 under the concept “embrace, engage, enable” this year is considered a new dimension to the world situation, which is the embracing of opportunities, the engaging between parties, and the enabling of new possibilities with the main objective being to support the recovery and the re-energizing of economies.

Mr. Kriengkrai Thiennukul, ABAC 2022 chair, said this year, ABAC’s recommendations are collected considering economic conflicts and trends which are deeply connected. Private sector faced many obstacles, such as food and energy instability, impacts from the great pandemic, global disruption in the supply chain, and increasing pressure from inflation.

These obstacles have disabled the region’s capability to achieve APEC’s mission which is to be an open, dynamic, resilient and peaceful Asia-Pacific community by 2040 for the prosperity of all our people and future generations.

After 3 major meetings all year in Singapore, Canada, and Vietnam, until this last meeting in Bangkok, Thailand, from the 13th to the 16th of November, we can say that we have finalized 69 recommendations under 2 objectives which are “Promoting speedy and sustained recovery” and “To regain the momentum for sustainable, inclusive, and resilient growth”.

The latter includes advancing toward sustainability, deepening regional economic integration, and fostering an enabling environment through digitalization. The working group will then deliver the complete report to APEC leaders.

Besides delivering the recommendations to the policy sector, ABAC is also the host and chair for the APEC CEO Summit 2022 from the 16th to the 18th of November under the concept “embrace, engage, enable”. This summit gathers economic leaders, thought leaders, and leading CEOs to exchange trade perspectives, investments, and the social drive to allow the Asia-Pacific region to embrace the opportunity, engage through collaboration, and enable new possibilities together with the private sector.

The delivery of ABAC’s recommendations from the private sector to the policy sector and the thought leadership report from the private sector to the business sector that will be happening through the ABAC 2022 will be a key force to drive the economy because the business sector is the main driver in creating trade growth in the Asia Pacific region through APEC.

The private sector, led by the ABAC 2022, trusts that the recommendation will help unite APEC to drive the Asia Pacific region to create harmony and dynamics by promoting open and free trade and investment, supporting and accelerating the unity of the economy at a regional level, and supporting economic and technical collaboration, supporting humanity stability, and facilitating favorable and sustainable business environment to allow policies to become concrete and create tangible agreements that are beneficial for people together.