The
19th Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit ended here on Sunday with
the 21-member economies calling for the creation of a seamless regional economy
that will benefit its three billion citizens.
The leaders, in their Honolulu Declaration, identified
three specific areas to achieve this objective, namely, increasing trade and
investment, promoting green jobs and streamlining regulations which would
encourage trade and job creation.
Host United States President Barack Obama, who
read out the declaration, said a crucial pre-requisite was to work together to
spur quicker economic growth.
“The economies of this region have a critical
role to play in addressing the imbalances and ensuring that growth is balanced
and sustainable in the future,“ said Obama at the two-day meeting.
Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun
Razak also attended the meeting together with other world leaders from China,
Japan, Russia and Asean countries.
Obama said enormous progress has been made,
but Apec's work towards a truly seamless regional economy is only in the
beginning stages.
“Though economies of this region have a
critical role to play in addressing the imbalances and ensuring that growth is
balanced and sustainable in the future, regional economy is only in the
beginning stages.
“We instruct our ministers and officials to
carry forward this work and to strengthen the economic foundation of our shared
Asia-Pacific community,” said Obama.
“We look forward to reviewing further progress
when we convene again during Russia's hosting of Apec in 2012,” he added,
referring to the next summit in Vladisvostok.
Further steps to open markets and facilitate
regional trade include dismantling the top barriers that SMEs face, so as to
boost their capacity in contributing to economic growth and job creation in
Apec economies.
Obama said leaders also agreed to launch the
Apec Travel Facilitation Initiative to explore ways to make travel in the
region faster, easier, and more secure, as well as implement the Apec New Strategy
for Structu-ral Reform plans by 2015 in order to reduce behind-the-border
barriers and promote balanced, inclusive, and sustainable growth.
The leaders also pledged to implement the Apec
Cross Border Privacy Rules System to reduce barriers to information flow,
enhance consumer privacy, and promote interoperability across regional data
privacy regimes.
Najib, who met Malaysian reporters after the
meeting, said he had briefed other leaders on Malaysia's New Economic Model
which has emerged as a game changer to the country's economy in generating
foreign investment of US$60 billion and 40,000 jobs rather quickly.
He said Malaysia's holistic approach to the
Economic Transformation Programme plus instituting economic reforms which
differed from other countries, brought in greater benefits.
“While other countries brought changes to
their bureaucracies, we made ours as part of an ambitious vision based on the
New Economic Model.
“We have a long-term 10-year plan which has
detailed programmes unlike other countries,” he added.
Mergawati Zulfakar
The Star
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