This is the first ministerial gathering of this year's APEC meetings. CCTV caught up with Director of APEC's Policy Support Unit Dennis Hew after the meeting, and he gave us his take on this year's APEC agenda.
Dennis Hew heads a research unit under APEC that analyses the economic and development trends of the 21 member economies. He believes this year's APEC meetings have built on the foundations set by last year's meetings in China, and officials are picking up on important discussion topics that matters to the whole region.
APEC accounts for 60% of world GDP and 40% of world trade, and growth pressure for the giant trade bloc is mounting, says Mr. Hew, as APEC's biggest economy the USA has yet to fully recover from the economic downturn, and China's growth is gradually moderating in the next few years. He said that is going to affect this year's discussion agenda.
Also a factor that will influence the agenda is the fact that more developing economies are hosting the APEC meetings. From China last year, the Philippines this year, Peru in 2016 and Vietnam in 2017.
The Philippines has raised their own proposal of building a Boracay Action Agenda to Globalize Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises. This proposal, which aims at lowering market entry barriers for SMEs across APEC, will be an important part of the discussions in this year's meetings.