Strong, Balanced, Secure, Sustainable and Inclusive Growth

Objective:

“To ensure that the Asia-Pacific region is resilient to shocks, crises, pandemics and other emergencies, we will foster quality growth that brings palpable benefits and greater health and wellbeing to all, including MSMEs, women and others with untapped economic potential.”

Evaluation of progress: APEC’s growth is high quality and inclusive, bringing palpable benefits and greater health and wellbeing to MSMEs, women and others with untapped economic potential.

Individual Actions: Economies will adopt and strengthen regulatory approaches, sound public sector governance, and take other measures that support economic inclusion, greater health, wellbeing and resilience for all.

Collective Actions: Economies will:

Build on APEC’s Agenda on Advancing Economic, Financial and Social Inclusion to enhance economic inclusion for all, including by:

Advancing inclusive policies, including under the economic drivers of trade and investment, and innovation and digitalisation, to promote sustainable economic growth opportunities and improve quality of life for all members of society;
Advancing gender equality and the economic empowerment of women, particularly through accelerating the full implementation of the actions in the La Serena Roadmap for Women and Inclusive Growth and building on them;
Promoting start-ups and advancing MSMEs’ access to finance, global markets, and global value chains as well as assisting in building their capacity to effectively participate in the wider economy;
Building on APEC’s work on supporting MSME’s and women’s economic empowerment, and cooperate to further develop APEC’s work on other groups with untapped economic potential, such as indigenous peoples as appropriate, people with disabilities, and those from remote and rural communities;
Promoting economic and technical cooperation to enhance capacity building and inclusive economic participation; and
Sharing experiences and best practice to promote inclusiveness and quality of life, including through: promoting structural reform to remove barriers to economic participation; encouraging the transition of economic actors from the informal to the formal economy; and data analysis.

Enable quality and equitable health access and outcomes for all with a view to achieving universal health coverage, including by strengthening health systems, by cooperating on:

preventing, detecting, responding to, and recovering from, pandemics;
accelerating equitable access to safe, effective, quality-assured, and affordable vaccines for all;
supporting the safe, secure and efficient operation of resilient health related supply chains; and
the use of digital technologies that foster health system innovation, such as telemedicine and digital health;

Ensure lasting food security, food safety and improved nutrition for all, as well as reducing food waste and loss in the region by promoting agricultural and food trade, agricultural sustainability and innovation, and implementing the Food Security Roadmap Towards 2030; and
Enhance cooperation to foster secure growth, including by implementing the APEC Beijing Declaration on Fighting Corruption, Santiago Commitment to Fight Corruption and Ensure Transparency, and the APEC Consolidated Counter-Terrorism and Secure Trade Strategy.

Objective:

“We will intensify inclusive human resource development as well as economic and technical cooperation to better equip our people with the skills and knowledge for the future.”

Evaluation of progress: All our people are well equipped with the skills and knowledge they need to adapt and thrive now and in the future.

Individual Actions: Economies will implement policies to ensure equity and inclusion in education and human resource development, including life-long skills development and social protection measures, to provide for widespread participation in the digital economy, inclusive labour markets, and to support swift recovery from economic shocks.

Collective Actions: Economies will:

Innovate and exchange expertise on skills and human resource development, and cooperate on sharing lessons and best practice in these areas;
Cooperate to improve the collection and analysis of skills and labour market data sets, including to better assess and bridge skills gaps and mismatches between skills and employment;
Strengthen economic and technical cooperation to intensify capacity building in inclusive human resource development;
Cooperate on the development of skills and literacy for all to accelerate the digital transformation of the region’s economy, including by implementing APEC’s Education Strategy and the APEC Framework on Human Resources Development in the Digital Age; and
Build on existing APEC work on mutual recognition of qualifications to deepen and widen its coverage.

Objective:

“We will promote economic policies, cooperation and growth, which will support global efforts to comprehensively address all environmental challenges, including climate change, extreme weather and natural disasters, for a sustainable planet.”

Evaluation of progress: APEC’s growth and prosperity is achieved on an increasingly environmentally sustainable basis.

Individual Actions: Economies, will implement policies consistent with their international obligations to advance environmentally sustainable and resilient growth, including by contributing to meeting APEC goals.

Collective Actions: Economies will:

Cooperate in relevant APEC fora to develop, encourage and exchange best practice policies, and promote capacity building programmes, that address all environmental challenges - including climate change - and support sustainable growth, such as through:

structural reform;
trade, including APEC’s work on facilitation of trade in environmental goods and services;
public finance, including tax policy and rationalising and phasing out inefficient fossil fuel subsidies that encourage wasteful consumption, while recognising the importance of providing those in need with essential energy services;
sustainable infrastructure and transport;
promoting sustainable growth across sectors and the development of cost effective low and zero emissions technologies, sustainable finance and, if appropriate, carbon pricing mechanisms; and
ensuring energy security, access, reliability and resilience through energy transition.

Seek to deliver existing Leaders’ commitments on energy issues: particularly to accelerate progress towards the 2030 target of doubling the share of renewable energy in the APEC energy mix, including in power generation, from 2010 levels by 2030; and to deliver a plan to reduce aggregate energy intensity by 45%, from 2005 levels, by 2035;
Work towards the sustainable resource management of agriculture, forestry and marine resources and fisheries, including by implementing the APEC Roadmaps on Marine Debris, and Combatting Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) Fishing, and commitments to combat illegal logging and associated trade;
Further implement the APEC Disaster Risk Reduction Framework;
Advance APEC’s circular economy work; and
Advance work on sustainable tourism.