ABAC finalizes APEC recommendations

MANILA, Philippines – The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Business Advisory Council (ABAC) has finalized recommendations to be presented this week to economic leaders attending the APEC Leader’s Meeting in Manila.

The recommendations laid out by Asia-Pacific’s business leaders are seen to address business sector priorities and concerns across APEC member economies.

“During this meeting, we reviewed the progress we’ve had as far as the recommendations for policies that we hope to present to leaders on Wednesday. We also established the agenda for next year. We are really thrilled that our Philippine government and ABAC, as the business voice in the APEC system, had really amazing collaborations throughout the year,” ABAC chair Doris Magasaysay Ho said in an interview following a closed-door meeting.

Citing some of the things discussed during the meeting, Ho said a lot of emphasis was given on how to bring more micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) into the global value chain and into international trade.

Emphasis on the service sector has also been discussed, Ho said.

“The beauty of APEC is it offers opportunities for everybody to enter into global markets. And we feel in the Philippines, one area we have as a growth opportunity is the services sector because we have such amazing talent. We see it in our business process outsourcing  sector. We see it in all the work done by Filipinos working abroad,” Ho said.