Living in Peru : your everyday companion

The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) member economies hope to reach concrete improvements in the trade liberalization process of the region starting in 2010, the executive director of the APEC Secretariat, Juan Carlos Capuñay, said today.

"In the case of developed economies, improvements will be possible from 2010 onwards, while in developing economies such changes will begin by 2020", he said during the 6th Conference on Secure Trade in the APEC region, which is held in Lima as part of the Third Senior Officials' Meeting (SOM III).

"Since November 2002, APEC leaders agreed to take measures to promote secure trade in the region, four months later, in February 2003, they discussed the fight against terrorism and agreed that APEC should intensify efforts in this regard," he said.

Capuñay pointed out these efforts should be made not only within a region but globally, for example, in the use of technologies and the support for the fight against terrorism. "This requires a commitment of all shareholders and private and public sector participants”, he noted.

"The public-private cooperation should take an active and proactive participation and commitment in this goal and, hence, the private sector should be seen as a partner and not just as a financing entity for these coordinations", he concluded.

The 21 economies that make up APEC are Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, USA, Philippines, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Russia, Singapore, South Korea , Chinese Taipei, Thailand and Vietnam.

News Source: ANDINA