MEDIA RELEASE 2017-01 3 October 2017
SERVICES COALITION CALLS FOR INTENSIFIED APEC ACTION TO
SUSTAIN MOMENTUM TOWARDS A MORE COMPETITIVE REGIONAL
SERVICES ECONOMY
One year has passed since APEC Leaders adopted the APEC Services Competitiveness
Roadmap and its Implementation Plan. “Services business leaders are encouraged that APEC
economies are largely on track to spur trade in services and achieve the Roadmap targets, so
that exports and imports of services from APEC as a whole exceed the global average by
2025”, saidArturo Field, Lima Chamber of Commerce. “Services play a big role across all
APEC economies – the more we promote services growth, the stronger our economies will
be”, saidBill Luz, Philippines Services Coalition. “We encourage continued progress to
develop principles on domestic regulation as an important ongoing part of APEC’s work on
services”,said Christine Bliss, President of the Coalition of Services Industries (US).
Services champions from around the Asia Pacific region came together in Kuala Lumpur on
2-3 October at APDiTS, the region’s first Asia Pacific Digital Technology Symposium,
hosted by the Malaysian Services Providers Confederation, which also featured an APEC
Public Private Dialogue on “New Technologies and the APEC Services Competitiveness
Roadmap”. Business leaders stressed the particular need for APEC to grasp the enormous
opportunities for productivity gains presented through digital transformation, the rise of
digitally-enabled services and the 4th Industrial revolution.
“New technologies are impacting on regional trade and investment – APEC needs to grasp the
opportunities and take action that helps trade to flourish.” saidMichael Landry, Canadian
Services Coalition.Jane Drake-Brockman, Australian Services Roundtable Vice President
said “The Coalition calls on APEC Leaders to act on the outcomes emerging from two years
of reflection and business consultation by the Ad Hoc Steering Group on the Internet
Economy and adopt a Roadmap to take the APEC region forward.” “We hope to see new
collective APEC commitments emerge, under the Services Competitiveness Roadmap, to
embrace the structural revolution underway and lay a path forward for regional cooperation”,
saidJames Liu, SYSCOM, Chinese Taipei.
“We certainly need bolder, more strategic action”, saidDevi Ariyani, CEO of the Indonesian
Services Dialogue “to ensure that all APEC economies can participate in and benefit from the
digital transformation.” “We congratulate and support Papua New Guinea in its quest to
tackle this issue by hosting an APEC Digital Economy Symposium in Port Moresby next
year”, saidChoo Kok Beng, Malaysian Services Providers Confederation.
“Digitisation of trade offers untold new opportunities to reduce business costs, stimulate
growth and enable greater economic inclusion for MSMEs, for women, for youth, for remote
and rural communities”, said Chey Scovell, Papua New Guinea Business Council, “and we
need to see active regulatory and policy engagement.”
“All trade in both goods and services – from the placing of an order to confirmation of
delivery – now involves the electronic transfer of data and increasingly of digitally-enabled
services. Data-transfer is today’s all-purpose means of business communication, spurring
economic growth and innovation in all industries”, saidChristine Bliss, President of the
Coalition of Services Industries (US).
“The reality is”, saidYerka Yukich, Santiago Chamber of Commerce, “digitally enabled
services lie at the heart of modern competitive economies. The associated flow of data across
borders has become the life blood of 21st century trade.” Deborah Biber, Pacific Basin
Economic Council (PBEC) observed that “internet speed has become the key emerging driver
of competitiveness for services firms of all sizes in all regional locations.”
“The Coalition congratulates those APEC governments that have been active in services
trade-related capacity building”, saidCatherine Beard, Business New Zealand, noting that
“we hope to see continued effort on the part of APEC to engage with services stakeholders in
dialogue and capacity-building programmes.”
Joanne Guo, Singapore Business Federation said that “the Coalition stands ready to work
with APEC and other partners including the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) and
the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (PECC) to achieve the APEC Services
Competitiveness Roadmap objectives”. “Improving the availability and accessibility of
reliable, timely and relevant metrics and data tools needs to be an ongoing priority, if we are
effectively to monitor progress”, said David Dodwell, Hong Kong Coalition of Services
Industries.
Background
The Asia-Pacific Services Coalition (APSC) is the world’s largest coalition of services industries. Its
mission is to foster growth and efficiency in all services sectors through trade and investment,
innovation and skills development, and pro-growth regulation in all APEC economies. The Coalition
was formed in 2015 when APEC ratcheted services to high priority on the APEC agenda, initiating a
new set of regional objectives for trade and investment in services. The Coalition has an official role,
conferred by APEC Leaders, to monitor and evaluate progress towards the services targets adopted in
the APEC Services Competitiveness Roadmap 2016-2025. Implementation of the Roadmap will
deliver benefits for all services organisations doing business in Asia-Pacific markets.
Contact:
Jane Drake-Brockman jdb@jdbsolutions.asia Australian Services Roundtable
David Dodwell David.dodwell@hk-apec.com.hk Hong Kong Coalition of Service Industries
Devi Ariyani Devi.ariyani@isd-indonesia.org Indonesia Services Dialogue
Dr Cheng Sim Chewdrcschew@gmail.com Malaysian Service Providers’ Confederation
Catherine Beard cbeard@businessnz.org.nz Business New Zealand
Chey Scovell chey@pngmade.com Business Council of Papua New Guinea
Arturo Field Arturo_Field@yahoo.com Lima Chamber of Commerce Services Committee
Patrick Chua Patrick.chua@mbc.com.ph Philippine Services Coalition
Joanne Guo joanne.guo@sbf.org.sg Singapore Business Federation
Yerka Yukich yyukich@ccs.cl Santiago Chamber of Commerce
Nadia Lin nadialin@twcsi.org.tw Taiwan Coalition of Service Industries, Chinese Taipei
Christine Bliss bliss@uscsi.org Coalition of Services Industries, United States
Michael Landry mlandry@davenportadvisory.com Canadian Services Coalition
Deborah Biber biber@pbec.org Pacific Basin Economic Cooperation Council