Singapore will host the second ABAC Meeting (ABAC 2) of 2013 from
April 3 – 6 with participation of some 150 prominent business leaders
from the 21 Asia – Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) economies.
The
meeting will be organised by the Singapore Business Federation (SBF) in
its capacity as the Singapore secretariat for the APEC Business
Advisory Council.
The overall theme for ABAC is “Partnership,
Resilience and Bridges to Growth” with priorities including accelerating
regional economic integration, promoting sustainable development,
fostering Small, Medium and Micro-sized Enterprises (SMMEs) development
and entrepreneurship, and strengthening and promoting the integration of
financial markets, the SBF’s press release said on April 1.
During
the meeting in Singapore, ABAC delegates will discuss the most
current and pressing issues faced by businesses and offer
recommendations to policymakers to facilitate trade and investment.
The
key deliverable for ABAC 2 is the development of an ABAC Letter to
highlight the recommendations to the APEC Minister Responsible for Trade
(MRT).
The press release quoted Wishnu Wardhana, ABAC Chairman
from Indonesia was quoted as saying that “This is an important year
for ABAC.”
“Uneasy global recovery highlights a greater need for
more sustainable and inclusive growth, and this requires concerted
efforts from all APEC businesses and leaders. The identified areas of
focus will contribute to building more opportunities for intra and inter
regional trade and investment. We look forward to discussing and
refining our recommendations for submission to the MRT,” he said.
This
second regional meeting is a lead-up to the annual APEC Economic
Leaders Meeting which will be held in Bali , Indonesia , in October.
SOM 2 and its related meetings and MRT will be held in Surabaya ,
Indonesia on from April 7 – 19 and April 20 – 21, respectively.
APEC
member economies are Australia; Brunei Darussalam; Canada; Chile;
China; Hong Kong, China; Indonesia; Japan; Malaysia; Mexico; New
Zealand; Papua New Guinea; Peru; the Philippines; Russia; Singapore; the
Republic of Korea; Chinese Taipei; Thailand; the United States; and
Vietnam.-VNA