Q3 Newsletter – August to September 2020

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As part of a broader effort to raise the profile of artificial intelligence (AI) on APEC’s agenda, the National Center for APEC (NCAPEC) and the APEC Business Advisory Council’s (ABAC) Digital Innovation Working Group (DIWG) held two workshops this summer focused on AI related issues, including data privacy and workforce development.

Both workshops featured Dr. Peter Lovelock who authored the research report, Artificial Intelligence in APEC, commissioned by ABAC, and Peggy Johnson, chair of the ABAC Digital Innovation Working Group and CEO of Magic Leap.

The first event featured three executives from Asia-Pacific-based companies that are leveraging AI in new business models; Daniel La Roche, Co-founder of Genomawork, Dr. Ralph Highnam, CEO and Founder of Volpara Solutions and Shinya Kukita, Principle, Global Public Policy Relations Office of NEC Corporation who discussed NEC’s CropScope technology. The report includes ten additional case studies from small and large businesses across industries and economies that are leveraging AI.

The second event brought together representatives from a variety of APEC fora to discuss how APEC can create an environment for the responsible adoption of AI in ways that boost competitiveness, while ensuring broader societal and public trust in the technology. Speakers for the second event included Dr. Julio Pertuzé, Chair of the Digital Economy Steering Group and advisor to Chile’s Minister of Economy, Professor Dong Sun Park, Lead Shepherd of the APEC Human Resources Development Working Group (HRDWG), Chairman of the Institute of APEC Collaborative Education (IACE), and also Professor at Pusan National University, and Eduardo Pedrosa, Secretary General of the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (PECC).

NCAPEC will continue working to broaden discussions on AI issues across a range of APEC fora.

The Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (PECC) State of the Region SOTR (SOTR) report is an annual undertaking which surveys leading business, government and academic figures in the Asia Pacific for their views on the key issues facing the region. In response to the COVID-19 global pandemic, PECC published a special SOTR survey and report to better understand the economic impact of COVID-19 and how to set a path toward recovery. This year’s survey of over 700 experts shows that the policy community and its stakeholders are more pessimistic about economic growth than official forecasts suggest. The respondents view the top five risks to growth to be, unsurprisingly: the pandemic, job losses, a contraction in trade, the rise in protectionism and a lack of political leadership.

The key message from the report is the need for a long-term strategic framework that the region’s governments and stakeholders can use to plan for the future. APEC’s post-2020 vision process provides an opportunity to deliver a strong political message that the region will stay the course towards reform and create open, interconnected, innovative economies, cooperating to deliver opportunity, prosperity and a sustainable future for all their peoples.

The APEC calendar from now until the end of November is packed with working group meetings, public policy dialogues, ministerial meetings and workshops. As most of these meetings would have normally been held over the course of the year, much of the work shifted to this fall. Notably, Malaysia as the host economy just announced new dates for the end of the year meetings. Those include:

• Nov. 16 – APEC Ministerial Meeting
• Nov. 17 – ABAC IV
• Nov. 19-20 – APEC CEO Dialogues
• Nov. 20 – APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting

As this year’s host economy, Malaysia is focused on leading efforts to achieve consensus on APEC’s post-2020 vision in time for the APEC Leaders’ Meeting this November. Deliberations on a vision that will guide APEC’s work beyond the Bogor Goals began as far back as 2016 when APEC Senior Officials began engaging in a series of multi-stakeholder dialogues on APEC’s future. To supplement input from these discussions, APEC officials established a “vision group” to provide input and also sought views from the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) and the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (PECC).

The APEC Vision Group comprised one representative from each APEC economy and was chaired by Ambassador Allan Wagner of Peru. Over a two-year period, the group met four times on the margins of APEC Senior Officials Meetings to identify issues that APEC should prioritize over the next 20 years. The AVG submitted its report, which highlighted 10 priority actions including trade, digital economy and sustainability, to APEC officials in the end of 2019.

ABAC and PECC, long-standing organizations that regularly provide input to APEC officials, also shared views on the new vision. ABAC summarized its position by noting, “our region would be best served by a seamless, dynamic, resilient, inclusive and sustainable ‘Asia-Pacific economic community’, with the Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific as its foundation, and with people at its heart.” PECC, whose members hail from business, academia, and government, submitted a report that identified specific initiatives and work streams that would help APEC remain relevant in the future. The PECC position is captured in their vison for APEC as, “an Asia-Pacific community of open interconnected, and innovative economies cooperating to deliver opportunity, prosperity and a sustainable future to all their peoples.”

With a mid-November deadline looming on the horizon, APEC officials are working closely to finalize the new vision. The lack of in-person meetings has likely created some unexpected difficulties for this process, however the extensive body of work developed by stakeholders, as well as the positive working relationships established by officials prior to the pandemic are certain to further efforts to achieve consensus on a path forward for APEC.