CALD Envisions APEC of the Future

The Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) 2015 summit was held in Manila, Philippines from the 18th to the 19th of November 2015. This was attended by various world leaders who deliberated on this year’s 4 main agendas: Investing in Human Capital Development; Fostering Small and Medium Enterprises’ Participation in Regional and Global Markets; Building Sustainable and Resilient Communities; and lastly, Enhancing the Regional Economic Integration Agenda.

In recognition of the importance of APEC in building a sustainable future for the region,  CALD partnered with TradeAdvisors and RockEd Philippines to discuss the past, present and future of APEC with the appropriately titled event “The World in 2039: APEC 50 Years Hence”. This side-event aimed to discuss how decisions made today would affect not only the integration and cooperation of economies, but also how people from various sectors interact to create integrated and sustainable economies of the future.

Ms. Gang Badoy-Capati of RockEd Philippines facilitated the discussion which featured the following panelists: Atty. Tony Abad of TradeAdvisors (economics), Hon. Herminio Bagro III of the Presidential Management Staff (youth and government), Prof. Edmund Tayao of the University of Santo Tomas (politics and the academe), Mr. Francis de Veyra of the DLS-College of St. Benilde (arts and music) and Mr. Phil Fullon of Global Footprint Network (environment). This broad spectrum of panelists fully engaged with each other and with the audience on how APEC could be used as a tool to foster sustainable and equitable development that all economies aspire for.

During the panel discussion, Mr. Fullon emphasised that climate change is a major consideration that would shape and re-shape APEC’s agenda in the future.  This point was supported by Undersecretary Bagro who noted that the Philippines, as host of the 2015 APEC Summit, chose to highlight the effects of climate change to economies, especially in light of the fact that the Philippines is one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change.

Prof. Tayao, on the other hand, pointed out that APEC’s discussions of trade should be done side-by-side with security.   He argued that trade and security could not be separated, and this could be clearly seen in the proposed statement on the Paris terror attacks widely expected to be adopted by APEC leaders at the conclusion of the summit. Mr. de Veyra enriched the discussions by sharing his thoughts on possible trends in arts and music, which, according to him, reflect the political, economic and social realities in APEC economies.

The event ended with the poetry of Mr. Jourdan Sebastian, whose piece entitled “Believe” captured the sense of optimism that the participants had on the prospects of APEC in building inclusive and sustainable economies.