In a series of critical regional APEC dialogues taking place this week in the Philippines, the Australian Services Roundtable (ASR) has provided strong representation and full support for the key goals expressed by the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) in line with the development of a new services-focused agenda for the organisation.
The services sectors are now at the centre of a transformation in the way business conducts trade and investment and drives economic integration. Nowhere are these developments more important than in APEC, as it seeks to capture the benefits of greater openness and deeper integration. The evidence shows that APEC still has much to do in its services agenda to take advantage of this transformation and to position itself for even greater changes in the future.
ASR notes that ABAC has called for APEC Leaders and Ministers to develop and promote a new services agenda which embraces change. ASR agrees with ABAC that domestic business organizations with a focus on services, need to be much more actively engaged in developing and promoting the new agenda.
With little existing cooperation among the business organizations focused on services in APEC, ASRsupports ABAC’s proposal for a more structured dialogue and for the development of a regional coalition of these business organizations.
ASR will work with ABAC Australia, as well as with other services coalitions in the region, including the Philippine Services Coalition, to help bring about an inaugural region-wide meeting of business organizations focused on services during 2015, where the development of a coalition of business organizations addressing services issues could be discussed.
The Indonesia Services Dialogue (ISD) is also giving these initiatives its strong backing. Ms Sinta Sirait, ISD’s Executive Director, said yesterday that the ISD looked forward to working closely with the ASRand the Philippines Services Coalition on these important new regional business approaches to boost the services sectors because of the benefits this would have for developing economies in increasing services trade and investment.
Ms. Vivianne Arnold, ASR Board Director and CEO of Franklin Phillips, a services firm operating across the Asia-Pacific region specialising in high-end recruitment, is participating in the APEC Senior Officials’ Public Private Dialogue on Services being held in the Philippines on February 3, 2015.
Addressing a Joint meeting of the APEC Economic Committee and the Group on Services on 1 February, Vivianne Arnold made the following comments:
“Human innovation knows no geographic boundaries so regulators can’t keep thinking locally anymore.
The Internet of Things means that instead of global supply chains we should be thinking about global data and services chains.
Digital disruption is already transforming the regions largest financial institutions and providing a springboard for the rapidly emerging fintech sector. It will be a huge opportunity potential that is lost to the region if critical innovations in this area are held back by outdated regulations.”