Free trade, infrastructure key to development: APEC business leaders

A Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific (FTAAP) and improved connectivity and infrastructure will be the key recommendations of the region's business people to leaders of the Asia Pacific Economic Forum (APEC) forum when they meet in China in November.

The APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) issued a statement in Auckland Friday at the close of the first of four meetings before their dialogue in Beijing with the 21 leaders of the APEC members.

ABAC chair Ning Gaoning said the deepening regional economic integration would underpin ABAC recommendations on APEC member policies.

"It is important that we provide the business perspective so that we can ensure that these policies are effective, practical and benefits everyone," Ning said in the statement.

Several pathways to the FTAAP had been developed outside the APEC framework, including the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which was currently under negotiation, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), where negotiations were gathering momentum and the Pacific Alliance, comprising four Latin American economies, which would soon enter into force.

"Even though these negotiations are taking place outside the APEC process it is our goal to ensure that there is coherence among these pathways so that they remain true to the concept of an FTAAP, the end game," ABAC New Zealand member and ABAC regional economic integration working group chair Tony Nowell said in the statement.

For ABAC, physical infrastructure, including ICT infrastructure for emergency and disaster preparedness, and services like transportation were key, but domestic regulations and standards were also equally important, said Ning.

ABAC would develop policy recommendations on domestic regulatory reform and business and skills mobility and urged APEC economies to move forward on pilot projects in global data standards.

Infrastructure development would focus on practical measures that aimed to enhance private sector participation by improving the investment climate, promoting public private partnerships and helping governments more effectively plan and implement infrastructure projects.

Strengthening the region's financial markets would focus on infrastructure financing and enhancing investment flows and long term savings, and supporting measures leading to the integration of the region's financial markets.