MANILA – In a bid to
enhance regional economic integration, ministers from twenty-one (21) Asia
Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) member economies will meet in Cebu City on
September 7 and 8 to review APEC’s structural reform efforts and set the
post-2015 agenda of the region.
The APEC Structural
Reform Ministerial Meeting (SRMM), to be chaired by Economic Planning Secretary
Arsenio M. Balisacan, will focus primarily on addressing
issues that impede inclusive growth.
“Guided by this year’s
theme, our priority is to facilitate inclusiveness, not only in the regional
sense but also within economies. The APEC region has been growing rapidly as a
whole but this is in many cases shared unevenly across societies,” said Balisacan.
At the SRMM, the
ministers will discuss key issues including challenges in implementing
structural reform, their respective economies’ priorities, and areas of
collaboration.
Speakers from the APEC
Secretariat and the World Bank will also speak on regulatory reform and
cooperation on services. This will be followed by a panel discussion among
ministers and heads of delegations on the challenges in undertaking structural
reform.
Discussions of the SRMM
will revolve around five themes. These are 1.) Structural Reform for Inclusive
Growth; 2.) Structural Reform and Innovation; 3.) Structural Reform and
Services; 4.) Tools for Structural Reform; and 5.) New Directions for
Structural Reform in APEC.
At the end of the
meeting, the ministers will adopt a post-2015 APEC New Strategy for Structural
Reform (ANSSR), which will further enhance the efforts and focus of structural
reform initiatives from 2016 to 2020.
NEDA Deputy
Director-General Emmanuel F. Esguerra will head the Philippine delegation to
this year’s Structural Reform Ministerial Meeting (2nd SRMM). The first meeting
was held in 2008 in Australia. (NEDA)