November 12th (AMSP/CGTN) – – Business leaders representing APEC’s 21 member economies met in Lima, Peru on Monday to kick off events for APEC’s Economic Leader’s Week. Chaired by Peru, this is the APEC Business Advisory Council’s fourth and final meeting this year.
Peruvian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Elmer Schialer, pointed out that throughout this year, productive discussions have taken place among Asia Pacific representatives focusing on key priorities, boosting trade advancing digitalization and addressing climate change.
The APEC Economic Leaders created the council back in 1995. It is the only non-government entity with an official role in APEC Leaders’ meetings.
During his opening remarks, Peru’s Minister of Foreign Affairs said the country hosted more than 270 events in five Peruvian cities this year.
The results showed the urgent need for cooperation among businesses and governments to tackle four main challenges: trade barriers, digital transformation, sustainability, and social inclusion. The council will present its results at a dialogue with APEC Leaders.
” To my mind our most important deliverable this year: the Lima ‘road map’ to promote the transition to the formal and global economy, ” Elmer Schialer disclosed.
Tackling so-called “informal workers” is a huge challenge in Latin America. Many Latin American countries like Peru, show around 60% of their working citizens are informal workers, meaning they have no formal employment subject to national laws, income taxes or government oversight.
” We need to understand the reasons for informality in each country, and usually they are the same. The rigidness in policies to transition to formality, and that is why we have suggested things like the use of technology to share innovating systems through these leading economies, ” Alfonso Bustamante, Business Leader of CONFIEP said.
Business leaders here say they hope APEC will adopt these proposals the made in 2024 – a year the council devoted to three major themes: People, Business, and Prosperity.
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