Bogor Goals inspire APEC members to go beyond 2020 (2)

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Bogor Goals inspire APEC members to go beyond 2020 (2)

By Wang Bo (Xinhua) 14:17, October 07, 2013

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TACKLING A BROADER GOAL WITH NEW FOCUS

Therefore, host Indonesia decided to make attaining Bogor Goals one of the three priorities for the current summit, aiming to seek a clarification of the goal, which, as put by Mahendar Siregar, Indonesia's vice finance minister, "would allow not only a clearer articulation for 2020 targets but also lead to a creation of an agreed framework to better achieve the target."

Some observers noted that the move is not meant only to reiterate members' commitment to the Bogor Goals, but offer an opportunity to re-focus APEC's efforts toward a goal broader than the traditional trade liberalization paradigm and upgrade guidelines for attaining the 2020 targets under the new circumstances.

As most members achieved greater degree of economic openness, APEC should shift its focus from removing tariffs to promoting cross-border cooperation on issues such as fostering multilateral trading system, improving trade finance, enhancing transparency and harmonization of regulation among economies, they said.

Allan Bollard, executive director of APEC Secretariat, said in a recent interview with Xinhua that he saw the next stage of APEC' s focus to be on regulatory reforms and harmonization of standards.

"APEC should be here doing interesting new things, trying out new ideas, though some of them won't work, and some of them will," he said.

CHANGING ECONOMIC LANDSCAPE CALLS FOR NEW APPROACH

Moreover, the world economic landscape has been vastly different from the days when the Bogor Goals were first set.

The world economic recovery has remained elusive because of the lingering effect of global financial crisis. Many APEC economies have been confronted with multiple challenges of capital outflow, currency devaluation, economic slowdown and rising inflation.

Many developing members which have followed an export and manufacturing-oriented growth model were hard hit by the continued sluggishness in the United States, euro area and other traditional markets.

These factors combined require that the developing members transform their growth model and shift their focus to domestic and intra-regional demand.

APEC members are widely expected to take what has achieved in attaining the Bogor goal as a new starting point and strive for tangible results at the current summit in promoting multilateral trade system.

They are also expected to coordinate regional free trade arrangement and enhance connectivity and infrastructure building in the Asia and Pacific region.