7 September 2015, Cebu City, The Philippines – Structural reform takes center stage as Ministers and economic officials from 21 APEC member-economies gather today in Cebu City, The Philippines, to map out ways to implement initiatives that support efficient and transparent business climate behind-the-borders. Officials say this opens the way toward an inclusive growth in the Asia-Pacific as the region continues to experience economic growth from increasingly integrated economies.
In his opening remarks, Philippine Socio-Economic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan underscored the role that structural reform plays in creating a development path that promotes competitiveness, inclusiveness and resilience.
“The structural reform process has been changing the way governments respond to the needs of the private sector,” said Dr. Balisacan who is the Structural Reform Ministerial Meeting Chair. “We hope to tackle the dynamic scenarios and challenges that we have been facing in our efforts of structural reform.”
Dr. Balisacan explained the challenges of bringing the benefits of economic growth to the community and individuals levels, which he says member economies can address by working toward providing equal access to capital and capacity development opportunities.
“We need to underscore the critical role of human capital development in unleashing the potential of several sectors to contribute to the advancement of our economies,“ said Dr. Balisacan. “We note that human capital development contributes to greater innovation, which improves productivity that is vital to the survival of firms.”
Dr. Balisacan encouraged APEC members to invest heavily in education, health, infrastructure support, and also help lagging areas in the region through increased development collaboration.
Focusing on the APEC 2015 priority of inclusiveness, Dr. Balisacan also expressed support for adapting initiatives that benefit the services sector in the region.
“Services is one of the major drivers of growth in several economies,” he continued. “Enhancing innovation and the services sector will definitely give small and medium enterprises (SMEs) better access to our envisioned regionally
In this meeting, Ministers will discuss how to overcome the middle-income trap, and consider the continuation of the structural reform work program until 2020.
The APEC structural reform agenda is grounded on the premise that trade liberalization and business facilitation will be fully achieved if complementary areas like providing for a conducive business climate behind the borders are also enhanced. Since APEC began to work on structural reform, the region has seen tremendous changes in the economic landscape.
Over the years, APEC’s work has put together a toolkit and ways to promote structural reform to implementers in member economies. This include the APEC Ease of Doing Business Action Plan, Good Regulatory Practice Guide, Good Practice Guide on Public Sector Governance, APEC-OECD Integrated Checklist on Regulatory Reform, and Handbook for the APEC Voluntary Review of Institutional Frameworks and Processes for Structural Reform.