4 May 2015 – Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Senior Officials, in partnership with the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) of the Philippines and the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (PECC), will hold the next round of Public-Private Dialogue on Services (PPD) at Shangri-La's Boracay Resort & Spa on May 17 at the sidelines of the Second APEC Senior Officials’ Meeting (SOM2).
The PPD in Boracay is the second in the series of dialogues on services in 2015 envisioned to guide APEC’s public and private stakeholders in pursuing the services agenda of APEC through collaboration and best practice exchanges.
With the services industry in the Philippines currently employing 1.052 million Filipinos and the services sector as the largest contributor to Philippine growth figures at 56.7% of gross domestic product in the 4th quarter of 2014 according to NEDA figures, discussion on ways to boost the services sector growth is a priority of the Philippines as it plays host to APEC 2015.
In recent years, discussions on services have primarily centered on the business process outsourcing industry. To cover the other critical sectors to services growth, the second 2015 PPD will feature experts, service providers, and consumers from across the Asia-Pacific as well as from international organizations such as the International Trade Centre, the World Bank and the Organization for Economic Development Cooperation, to share developments, challenges and opportunities in manufacturing, environment, and agriculture-related services. Topics include logistics, transportation, supply chain connectivity, professional services such as engineering and architecture, urban and environmental planning, waste management, energy, and water, noise and air pollution.
The upcoming PPD follows from the services dialogue held at the sidelines of First APEC Senior Officials’ Meeting in Clark, Pampanga in February, which covered Information Technology and Business Process Management (IT-BPM), Creative Industries, and Research and Development Services. The two PPDs will lead up to the first Regional Conference of Services Coalitions and Service Industries at the margins of the Third Senior Officials’ Meeting in September in Cebu, as well as the crafting of an APEC Services Cooperation Framework, a Philippine initiative to guide priorities for collaboration on an APEC strategy for services competitiveness. END