KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 19): The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation's (APEC) private-sector arm, the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC), is calling for more regional cooperation to overcome challenges that the region is facing. 

This comes as ABAC hosted business leaders from around Asia-Pacific in Sydney, Australia this week to discuss the year ahead, including engaging with APEC senior officials on how best to advance shared goals around integration, innovation and inclusion in the region.

The forward agenda and work programme will then be presented directly to APEC economic leaders during the APEC Summit in Kuala Lumpur in November. 

To achieve its goal, ABAC said in a statement today that it would be seeking a seamless, dynamic, resilient, inclusive and sustainable Asia-Pacific economic community, underpinned by a Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific, with people at its heart.

"We are seeing disruption and volatility in the geopolitical situation, in trade and markets, in economic inequality, in the digital economy and even in our physical environment.

"One thing is clear: to overcome these challenges, we need more regional cooperation, not less. This was our key message to senior officials in our annual dialogue this week," ABAC chair Datuk Rohana Mahmood said. 

As such, Rohana said that ABAC would be looking to find durable solutions to those issues as part of the post-2020 vision for the region that was due to be finalised by APEC this year.

At the meeting in Sydney, Rohana said ABAC members reiterated their strong support for the World Trade Organization (WTO), saying that the multilateral rules-based system remains relevant and effective for all in the modern economy. 

"The mid-year WTO Ministerial Conference represents a crucial opportunity to make progress on reforming WTO rules and resolving the impasse on dispute settlement. As we see our small businesses and developing economies exporting more, this is critical," she said. 

On the digital economy, Rohana said that ABAC remained convinced that fostering an innovation-friendly, resilient and cyber-secure digital ecosystem was the best way to help unlock growth for underserved groups, including women, indigenous communities and micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in the region.

“As we face the emergence of new technologies such as artificial intelligence, we need to equip APEC economies to create an environment for successful development and ethical uptake of AI.

"Underpinning these efforts was a need for ongoing structural reform to increase the resilience of all APEC economies," she added.