APEC NATIONAL SECRETARIAT GEARS UP FOR APEC 2015 11 September 2014 - In preparation for the Philippines’ APEC Hosting in 2015, the Department of Foreign Affairs’ Office of the Undersecretary for International Economic Relations (OUIER), as the APEC National Secretariat, attended the Third Senior Officials’ Meeting and Related Meetings (SOM 3) from August 06 to 21 in Beijing, China. Two earlier meetings were held on 15-28 February 2014 (SOM 1) in Ningbo and 05-15 May 2014 (SOM 2) in Qingdao. The Senior Officials’ Meeting or SOM is the main policy-making body within APEC. The SOM receives and implements directives emanating from the APEC Economic Leaders. Proposals for APEC Ministers and the ongoing programs of the various APEC Committees and technical working groups are discussed at the SOM. In SOM 3, the Senior Official for the Philippines led the Philippine delegation in the 55 related meetings and workshops on various topics such as trade and investment, product standards, trade security, structural reform, urbanization and the internet economy. This year, the Philippines also served as the Chair of SOM Steering Committee on Economic and Technical Cooperation (SCE). Under the Philippines’ chairmanship, the SCE re-assessed the future direction of economic and technical cooperation in APEC. Operationally, this translates into linking medium-term priorities to capacity-building initiatives, longer-term programs, and the development of a system which evaluates the effectiveness of APEC’s capacity-building programs. In November, the Philippines will participate in the Concluding Senior Officials’ Meeting (CSOM), which will then be followed by the joint Trade and Foreign Affairs Ministerial Meeting. APEC 2014 will culminate in the APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting (AELM), drawing China’s APEC Host Year to a close. Part of the Philippines’ task as Host Economy in 2015 is to carry forward the initiatives of the APEC Leaders in Beijing under the APEC 2014 theme Shaping the Future through Asia-Pacific Partnership and priorities: (1) Advancing regional economic integration; (2) Promoting innovative development, economic reform and growth; and (3) Strengthening comprehensive connectivity and infrastructure development. The first Philippines-hosted APEC meeting is the Informal Senior Officials Meeting (ISOM) in December 2014 in Legazpi City. END
Posted on: Thu, 11 Sep 2014 00:35:25 +0000
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