MANCPEC: Professor Dr Mohd Faiz Abdullah appointed as the new MANCPEC Chair

Professor Dr Mohd Faiz Abdullah succeeds Mr Herizal Hazri as the Chair of the Malaysia National Committee for Pacific Economic Cooperation (MANCPEC). Professor Faiz is also the Chairman for the Institute of Strategic and International Studies (ISIS), Malaysia.

A lawyer by training, Professor Faiz graduated with First-Class Honours in LLB from the International Islamic University Malaysia in 1989 and was called to the Malaysian Bar the following year. He later obtained an MBA from the University of Southern Queensland, Australia and a PhD from Putra Business School. His first degree was in English Literature from the University of Malaya.

As author and scholar, Professor Faiz has extensive experience in public policy and research, including as special adviser on international policy and affairs with the Selangor government, and later as adviser in strategic and international relations in the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Ministry of International Trade and Industry.

Professor Fa...

MXCPEC: Dr. Gerardo Traslosheros appointed as the new MXCPEC Chair

Dr. Gerardo Traslosheros succeeds Ambassador Sergio Ley as the Chair of the Mexico National Committee for Pacific Economic Cooperation. Dr. Traslosheros is also the Coordinator of the Global Governance Program at the UDLAP Jenkins Graduate School (UJGS) in Mexico City, and Member of the Mexican Council of Foreign Relations (COMEXI). He is also a newspaper columnist, an analyst on global affairs, and a professor on international economics. 

He has previously served as Ambassador of Mexico to New Zealand (2016-2018), the Consul General of Mexico in Sao Paulo (2011-2016), and Minister-Counsellor for the Ministry of the Economy at the Mexican Embassy to the OECD (2005-2007). He was the Coordinator of the OECD-Ministry of the Economy project for the Strengthening of Competitiveness in Mexico (2007-2009) and negotiations of the Mexico-Japan Economic Partnership-FTA Agreement (2003-2005). He was also a member of the Mexican NAFTA negotiating team.

He served as the APEC SOM Chair when Mexico...

29th PECC General Meeting Concludes

The 29^th PECC General Meeting concluded on 3^rd November 2022. The event was hosted by the Thailand National Committee of the Pacific Economic Council (TNCPEC) and the International Study Centre of the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the theme of “Asia Pacific beyond Thailand APEC 2022”. The conference provided insights and in-depth discussions on 3 key themes:

1.    The disruption affecting APEC connectivity during 2016-2022
2.    Trends of trade and investment liberalization / restrictions of APEC economies beyond 2022
3.    APEC cooperation to enhance the development of the BCG Economy; impact on climate change

Thailand’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, H.E. Mr. Don Pramudwinai opened the event with a keynote address. He highlighted on the challenging global issues on food, fuel, and financial crises that are faced by many economies. He underscored that the shifting of geo-politics caused adversities for most economies to undertake transformative changes, par...

State of the Region 2022-2023

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

From mid-August to mid-September the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council conducted its annual survey of the regional policy experts’ views on the state of the region. The findings show a 180 degree turnaround from last year’s results on expectations for economic growth. The  percentage of respondents expressing an optimistic view on the prospects for global growth changed from 55 to 17 percent and those with a pessimistic outlook rose from 17 percent to 60 percent. Risks remain heavily tilted to the downside with inflation by far the main concern. While views varied across the Asia-Pacific, there remain continued concerns over the risk of new waves of the Covid-19 virus emerging indicating that the region is not yet fully out of ‘pandemic mode’. Forecast for growth for the region this year have similarly come down from 5.1 percent in October 2021 to 2.6 percent in October 2022.

By far, inflation was considered the top risk to growth with 51 percent of respondents s...

AUSPECC: Mr Christopher Langman appointed as the new AUSPECC Chair

   
Mr Christopher Langman succeeds Dr. Gordon de Brouwer as the Chair of the Australian PECC committee (AUSPECC). Mr Langman has had a distinguished career in the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. He was Deputy Secretary, Trade, Investment, and Business Engagement Group, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade from 2018 to 2021.

Prior to that, he was Australia's Ambassador to Iraq. Mr Langman earlier served as Ambassador to the OECD in Paris, as Deputy Head of Mission to the United Nations in Geneva, and in Washington and Buenos Aires.

In Canberra, Mr Langman has held a number of senior positions, including as First Assistant Secretary, G20 Policy in the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet in the lead-up to and during Australia's host year in 2014. He has also led DFAT's Trade and Economic Division, and the Office of Trade Negotiations, and was Special Negotiator for Agriculture and Australian Ambassador for the Environment.