09 November 2015 – The Concluding Senior Officials’ Meeting (CSOM), to be held on November 13 to 14 in Manila, will kick-off a series of APEC events in the coming week.
Senior Officials will meet to prepare for the APEC Ministerial Meeting, APEC CEO Summit, APEC Business Advisory Council Dialogue with Leaders, and the 23rd APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting (AELM) scheduled back-to-back beginning November 16 until November 19.
CSOM will be chaired by Department of Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Laura Q. Del Rosario, who has presided over the first three Senior Officials’ Meetings, held in February, May and September. Senior Officials will progress trade and economic initiatives under the APEC 2015 theme of ‘Building Inclusive Economies, Building a Better World”.
“We will meet to deliver tangible outcomes for the Asia-Pacific region, and the Philippines,” said Undersecretary del Rosario. “Throughout the Philippines’ chairmanship in 2015, we have shaped APEC’s discussions to shed light on the unique relationship between trade and development. One of the key issues was to find ways to achieve quality economic growth through good governance measures. We will be introducing a regional framework that focuses on social cohesion, institution-building, and environmental impact as key accountability areas for economic growth.”
The CSOM meeting is expected to bring together over 300 delegates from the 21 APEC member economies, to discuss and finalize for Ministers and Leaders’ endorsement, a number of initiatives under the key priorities of enhancing the regional economic integration agenda; fostering MSMEs’ participation in regional and global markets; investing in human capital development; and building sustainable and resilient communities.
“We have always believed in APEC as a pathway to development and domestic economic reform. We have carefully developed all our APEC initiatives with the welfare of all Filipinos in mind. APEC is beyond trade and macroeconomic policies, we also address concerns which are central to an individual’s economic well-being such as health, access to quality education, skills training, mobility, MSMEs’ access to capital, and preparedness for and resilience to disasters such as by adopting set principles for the movement of humanitarian goods during disasters”, added Undersecretary Del Rosario.
The two-day meeting will be followed by the APEC Ministerial Meeting (Joint Foreign Affairs and Trade) on November 16 to 17. The 21-member APEC is the premier Asia-Pacific economic forum, and aims to support sustainable economic growth and prosperity in the region. Its members account for over half of the world's GDP, and around 47 percent of world trade. END