Sustainable Development and Circular Economy (Seminar 1): Natural Resource Industries – Mining, Forestry, and Oil & Gas | Bozeman, Montana, USA | September 20-23, 2017

Many PECC economies depend upon revenue from natural resource utilization. This includes a wide range of primary and secondary industries involving forestry, mining, and oil and gas development. Natural resource extraction and the value of these commodities can represent significant percentages of GDPs. However, growing concern over climate change, biodiversity, and human health impacts has resulted in an increasingly complex set of domestic and international government regulations, interventions, and analyses concerned with enforcing sustainable environmental policy.

In response to this web of rules, regulations, laws and emerging international treaties, many companies have begun investing in a range of innovative approaches to achieving sustainability objectives while growing their respective financial bottom-lines. As necessity is often the mother of invention, international leaders in forestry, mining and oil and gas industries are utilizing technological innovation, advances in da...

MANCPEC: Roundtable on APEC Post-2020 Agenda | Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia | May 2, 2017

The inaugural Malaysia National Committee for Pacific Economic Cooperation (MANCPEC) Roundtable on Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Post-2020 Agenda was held on Tuesday, 2 May 2017, at the Institute of Strategic and International Studies (ISIS) Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur. Around 30 individuals representing government, businesses, business associations, think tanks and academia attended the Roundtable, with majority being MANCPEC members.

The main purpose of the Roundtable is to brainstorm ideas on APEC goals beyond year 2020 and look at relevant questions on the future of APEC. At the Roundtable, two distinguished speakers were Datin Che Mazni Che Wook, APEC Senior Official for Malaysia from the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) and Dato’ Muhamad Noor Yacob, Former APEC Executive Director. Dato’ N Vasudevan, Former APEC Senior Official for Malaysia and Dato’ Ramesh Kodammal, Member of ASEAN-BAC were the discussants at the Roundtable.

Datin Che Mazni highlighted ...

Multi-Stakeholder Dialogue on APEC toward 2020 and Beyond | Hanoi, Vietnam | May 16, 2017

The Multi-stakeholder Dialogue on APEC Toward 2020 and Beyond was co-organized by Vietnam APEC SOM Chair's office and PECC. The event was attended by about 300 participants including APEC Senior Officials, other representatives from member economies, academia, businesses, regional and international institutions. The Dialogue is a follow up to the APEC Leaders’ Lima Declaration made in November 2016 to start “a series of high-level dialogues on APEC Toward 2020 and Beyond.”

H.E. Tran Dai Quang, the President of Vietnam, opened the Dialogue and shared his vision of a peaceful, dynamic, inclusive, seamless, and people and business-centered Asia–Pacific Community in the 21st century. 

Pascal Lamy, chair of the French committee for PECC (FPTPEC) and former Director General of the WTO reminded that realizing open trade is a painful process but that the governments should place more focus on social inclusion in order to mitigate the negative impact of open trade and globalization....

APEC Environmental Services Trade Policy Dialogue | Hanoi, Vietnam | May 11, 2017

APEC Policy Support Unit, Japan METI (Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry), and PECC co-organized a one-day workshop on environmental and energy services with various industry experts and related business representatives from both large multinational corporations such as Veolia Environment (France) and Nalco (US) as well as smaller international companies such as Natel Energy (US) and Barghest Building Performance (Singapore). 

This workshop/ trade policy dialogue follows from APEC's ongoing work on Environmental Services Action Plan (ESAP) that was endorsed in 2015 in the Philippines. The main purpose of the workshop was to discuss trends, challenges, value creation, and business models found in specific industries that comprise environmental services. 

Starting with speakers from the WTO and OECD, who provided the background on the classification of environmental goods and services, the following five sessions covered: 1) water business; 2) refuse disposal and recycli...

PECC Standing Committee Meeting | Hanoi, Vietnam | May 14, 2017

The annual Standing Committee meeting of PECC took place in Hanoi, Vietnam, on the eve of the 24th PECC General Meeting. The SC representatives reviewed work in progress and considered new project proposals. The three signature projects underway are: 1) State of the Region report; 2) Asia-Pacific Connectivity Index; and 3) APEC Beyond 2020. 

APEC Senior Official for Papua New Guinea, Ambassador Ivan Pomaleu addressed the Standing Committee members of PECC in Hanoi, Vietnam. As the host economy of APEC in 2018, he said the PNG government will focus on the following four priorities: 

1) Connectivity and regional economic integration - including FTAAP, global value chains and unfinished business and emerging issues beyond the Bogor Goals and 2020
2) Sustainable and inclusive growth - including natural disaster resilience, climate change, MSMEs, women empowerment, food security, and the blue economy
3) Structural reforms 
4) Human capital development and capacity building, in...