APEC CEO summit calls for free trade, inclusive growth

PORT MORESBY - After two-days of rigorous discussions, the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) CEO Summit 2018, has wrapped up on Saturday in the capital city of Papua New Guinea (PNG), Port Moresby.

In an unprecedented move for an APEC event, world leaders and business executives from the 21 member economies, met on board a P&O cruise liner, the Pacific Explorer.

With the theme of the summit "Inclusion in the age of disruption: Charting a common future," Chinese President Xi Jinping, in his keynote speech delivered on Saturday, advocated greater connectivity, a boost to sustainable infrastructure developments across the region and the continuation of trade liberalization.

While the organization, established in 1989, predominantly promotes growth and trade liberalization across the Asia-Pacific region, guests and delegates used the opportunity to discuss a wide-range of economic and security issues like the future of globalization, energy development and the sustainable management of natural resources.

Other key areas that the talks focused on were new ways to help small to medium enterprises, digitization, innovation and disruption.

The overarching issue of ensuring inclusive growth through greater connectivity was also a major feature of numerous panels.

"While free trade is vital ... this alone will not deliver the sustained and the wider economic development that we aspire to," PNG Prime Minister Peter O'Neill said at the opening of the summit on Friday.

"Policies must be aimed at improving productivity, raising low and middle-income levels so that we are able to make a better of standard of living for our people."

Encouraging investment infrastructure that can facilitate digital access for small to medium enterprises in remote areas, O'Neill added, "There should be no space for digital divide, on whatever grounds that divide may be generated ... be it gender, ethnic groupings, education or where the person lives."

Other world leaders who addressed the forum included US Vice-President Mike Pence, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad and Chilean President Sebastian Pinera.