Conference Participants

• 90+ participants from APEC and Non-APEC economies (guests from Colombia, Mongolia and the Netherlands); and non-ASC participants (Asian Development Bank Institute, Asia Pacific Rim Universities, and Elsevier) attended the 2-day forum• It was noted that no participant from the following economies: 1)

Brunei Darussalam, 2) Canada, 3) Chile, 4) Indonesia, 5) Malaysia and 6) Mexico.• Speakers from APEC’s Policy Support Unit were also invited to share

their research outputs during the conference

Opening Session• Developing policies that promote inclusive growth• Academic inputs and discussions are critical• Need for greater collaboration among governments, the private sector, the

academe, and the civil society

• APEC Study Centers• Provide analytical work valuable in policymaking • ASCs are steadily gaining ground and will continue to do so with the support

of the APEC Secretariat

The ASCC Program• A total of 24 papers were presented covering a wide spectrum of

issues, structured along the APEC 2015 priority agenda

Session 1 Enhancing the Regional Economic Integration: Pathways to FTAAP

• Supported the realization of FTAAP and highlighted APEC’s role as incubator of trade policy ideas• Upheld the formulation of FTAAP roadmap and discussed several

pathways to realize FTAAP— i.e., building on and using regional agreements within APEC; negotiating fresh agreement• In whatever scenario, APEC should act as a breeding ground and

mechanism for communication, exchange of best practices, and capacity building, among other things, under the context or principle of open regionalism• Any FTAAP pathways must include SMEs and establish ways to ensure greater

SME participation

Session 2 Enhancing the Regional Economic Integration: Connectivity through Services

• Affirmed the importance and role of services in the growth and evolution of APEC economies• Services as a glue and facilitator of GVCs

• Despite the importance and reported benefits of services liberalization, the sector remains highly restrictive• Economies which could benefit the most are also those with the

highest levels of services restrictiveness• Services is relatively unknown and the uncertainty of introducing

regulatory reforms contributes to the wave of protectionism among economies

Session 2 Enhancing the Regional Economic Integration: Connectivity through Services

• To better appreciate the link between manufacturing and services, and build up confidence over the associated need for regulatory reforms: • Encourage knowledge sharing and develop a knowledge community—

fitting task/role for APEC as an incubator of innovative approaches to economic cooperation• APEC to formulate its own version of service trade liberalization target

under the context of FTAAP

Session 3Enhancing the Regional Economic Integration: Trade and Investment Patterns and Supply Chain Connectivity

• REI benefits would depend largely on the volume and quality of trade and investment patterns, infrastructure, and connectivity in the region. • Policies that promote investments and reduce transaction costs are

crucial in attracting FDIs, as illustrated by the experiences of Thailand Vietnam• Inability and failure to upgrade can confine economies in the wrong

side of the supply chain and lead them in a state of middle-income trap

Session 4Fostering SMEs’ Participation in the Regional and Global Economy (1/2)

• Regional economic integration that promotes inclusive economic growth will only succeed if there is an effective strategy for SMEs’ development. • SMEs face difficulty in accessing formal credit: absence of credit data

(information asymmetry); SMEs are perceived as ‘high risks’• Could grow worse in an open financial market

• Disaster-related disruptions can have serious negative impact on SMEs• APEC countries are prone to intense natural disasters and only about 25 percent

of SMEs in the region re-open following severe weather disturbance

Session 4Fostering SMEs’ Participation in the Regional and Global Economy (2/2)

• Need for stronger financial cooperation and setting up of a credit rating system for SMEs; • Promote the integration of government Disaster Risk Reduction and

Management (DRRM) frameworks in local and concrete sectoral or business plans• Develop and implement a development and competitiveness

indicators system which could aid in location decisions of firms

Session 5 Investing in Human Capital Development

• To further strengthen APEC’s Cooperative Measures in Human Resource Development, there is a need to foster academic and technical exchanges:• Create an APEC Network of Universities and similar initiatives• Establish an academic exchange visa for students and professors similar to the

APEC business visa

• Affirmed the need to have skills comparability for greater intra-firm connectivity within the region:• Establishment of the APEC Reference Qualification Framework

Session 6 Building Sustainable and Resilient Communities• Call to “strengthen the supervision of change” by capacitating leaders and

adopting an integrated approach to the varied problems associated with climate change• More inter-sectoral and inter-agency collaboration, and more multidisciplinary

research to understand climate change

• Explored ways and policy strategies to manage disaster-related risks; insurance and other risk-sharing schemes offer some potential• APEC is likewise expected to contribute to the mitigation and prevention

of the adverse effects of environmental degradation• Liberalization of environmental goods in the APEC list

• Promotion of social enterprises (SEs) as an example of innovative business model that foster sustainable development

Administrative Issues: Focus on Mainstreaming the ASCC into the APEC Process

• Mainstream the ASCC into the APEC process • Accord ASCC a guest/observer status in SOM meetings

• Strengthen the existing ASCC mechanism • Guest/observer in various APEC working groups, i.e. Policy Partnership on Science,

Technology and Innovation (PPSTI), Human Resources Development Working Group (HRDWG) and other relevant APEC groups

• Strengthen linkages between the ASCs and the APEC Policy Support Unit (PSU) by engaging the ASCs in APEC projects and exploring possible collaboration between the ASCs and the PSU in research studies/activities;• Encourage respective economies APEC working groups to involve and tap

ASCs researches to serve as inputs to APEC policy making process.

Thank you

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EMAIL: anavarro@mail.pids.gov.ph

To access the conference materials, visit: