APEC Senior officials to create framework on cooperation paradigm to promote services sector

Senior officials of member economies of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) on Tuesday (Feb. 3) began holding dialogues that seek to create a framework on a cooperation paradigm that could help promote and advance services in the Asia-Pacific region.

Senior analyst of the APEC Policy Support Unit, Gloria O. Pasadilla, said the ultimate objective of the Public-Private Dialogue on Services is the creation of a framework on a cooperation mechanism that could help promote services and at the same time, lower barriers on trade and investment.
Pasadilla said that although services have already been tackled in various working groups, such as those on health, tourism, transportation, information technology, energy, human resources development, telecommunications, and small and medium enterprises, the APEC has no coordinating mechanism in place.

"So far, the APEC has no coordinating framework on regulations and capacities," she said at the start of the Public-Private Dialogue on Services at the ongoing APEC Senior Officials' Meeting held at the Fontana Leisure Resorts in Angeles City.

The 2015 Public-Private Dialogue on Services is the first of a series of dialogues envisioned to guide the APEC's public and private stakeholders in fostering collaboration and best practice exchanges for services growth.

Pasadilla expressed hope that through the series of dialogues, senior officials of the APEC member economies would be able to understand the intricacies of universal services.

"We hope that APEC's public and private stakeholders would be able to examine the developments, challenges, and opportunities for the services sector, identify new strategies for building the full potential of the service sector, generate policy options toward removing barriers to services trade, and develop an innovative approach, pursuing the services agenda of APEC," she said.

She also expressed belief that innovation and greater progress will be achieved by the APEC in pursuing its services agenda as a result of increased interaction and collaboration.

"The Public-Private Dialogue is designed to be a collective brainstorming on how APEC can push the services agenda forward," she added. PNA