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SINGAPORE: As chair of this year's Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, Singapore hopes to lay the foundation for member economies to emerge stronger as the world climbs out of the global recession.
Speaking to MediaCorp ahead of the APEC Ministers' Meeting on Wednesday, Trade and Industry Minister Lim Hng Kiang said that as a group, APEC needs to deal with immediate post-crisis management issues as well as longer term challenges.
He said the immediate issues to tackle include how economies can successfully exit from the various stimulus packages in place and ensure growth is balanced. This means ensuring that there will be no more major dislocation to savings, investments and current account surpluses, which crippled the global economy.
Mr Lim said: "So what we do this year, we hope will be followed up by Japan (being the chair of 2010 APEC summit) and the US (being the chair of APEC in 2011). And that will give us a good run for dealing with the challenges over the longer term."
He added that unemployment will also remain high for most developed countries, so fighting protectionist trade policies will be a key issue.
In July, APEC trade ministers had pledged to resist imposing trade barriers for another year, till 2010 and beyond, if necessary.
"That means there will be no new trade barriers even if they are compliant with WTO (World Trade Organisation) procedures," said Mr Lim.
"I think this is very useful in that member economies know that they cannot just do things and get away with it. They know that they'll be under the spotlight, they have to account to their peers."
And as the centre of economic gravity shifts to this part of the world, there will also be a strong impetus for regional economic integration, with an eye on an Asia Pacific-wide Free Trade area.
Mr Lim said one important building block to an eventual Asia-Pacific Free Trade Area is the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership in which Singapore, Brunei, Chile and New Zealand are members.
Australia, Peru, Vietnam and the US have also expressed interest to join the partnership.
APEC is ushering in its 20th anniversary this year and moving forward, observers say it needs to remain relevant not just to the business community but also to the people of the Asia-Pacific region and that is where the term "inclusive growth" comes into play, ensuring that the benefits of government policies trickle down to the man in the street.
- CNA/ir
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