Understanding Services at the heart of a competitive economy
An ABAC Initiative – Champions: ABAC Hong Kong China and ABAC Philippines
October 2011 – Report available here Report on Services.pdf: Lead author ASR Director Jane Drake-Brockman
Services are a critically important driver of economic growth and job creation in the APEC region. They account for well over 50% of regional GDP and well over 60% of jobs. All APEC economies are successfully exporting services of one kind or another.
The sources of Services competitiveness and strong services export performance are relatively poorly understood. Too little attention is being given to how the governance of 21st century trade and investment in services can be improved. The inter-governmental agenda lags badly behind the fast changing realities of doing international business in Services.
We consider that in the interests of regional growth, development and job creation, APEC members should focus as a priority on finding immediate ways of reigniting services trade negotiations at a regional and global level. We conclude with 3 new suggestions for action by APEC, summarized below.
Proposal 1: Launch a new and dedicated initiative specifically aimed at liberalizing and facilitating regional services trade and investment. The new initiative should prioritize regulatory reform and it should cover all services markets and all modes of delivery. The initiative should include drafting of joint APEC principles for all-of-services best practice regulation, including with a view to generating global interest in development of such principles.
Proposal 2: Commission an APEC-led tripartite (i.e. including the business community) “Services Expert Group” to take a “back to basics” look at how to improve the global governance of services trade and investment.
Proposal 3: Commit to substantially improve, in collaboration with relevant international organizations, the region’s official statistics on services production, employment, productivity, trade and investment to ensure the regional services economy becomes more “visible”.