Jokowi Urges APEC Leaders to Carry Out Three Tasks

Da Nang, Vietnam (Antara Bali) - Indonesian President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) has urged the leaders of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) member countries to carry out three tasks, namely inclusive development, conclusion of "Bogor Goals," and exploitation of innovation and technology development.

"Unless they are improved, the ideas and movements of protectionism as well as anti-globalization would spread rapidly," he said at the APEC Summit here on Saturday.

According to data, there has been an improvement in the welfare and alleviation of poverty in APEC countries, but progress of development has not yet spread evenly. Therefore, inclusive development would be very important to benefit the people, in general.

"The current globalization has also caused chronic income gap due to uneven spread of globalization benefits," he stated.

Jokowi urged APEC to immediately conclude the "Bogor Goals" agendas that have not yet been completed as they have become the push factors for APEC cooperation in the past 23 years.

"Bogor Goals reflect the importance of free and open trade and investment as well as the realization of economic growth and people`s prosperity," he noted.

Jokowi finally urged all APEC members to take advantage of technological advancement and innovation in the post-2020 vision. A number of anticipatory and adaptive measures must be taken by APEC to reduce development gap, he remarked.

"(It) must also encourage regional economic integration, continuation of structural reform, settlement of regulatory hurdles, application of productive growth strategy, realization of sustainable and even development, and reduction of economic gap," he added.

He hoped that APEC members could work together to realize its vision to produce concrete results, which are useful for all the people in the world.

"It is hoped that the balance of pillars of liberalization and trade and investment facilitation, as well as technical and economic cooperation, would become keys to success," he explained.

Jokowi presented the three issues at a working lunch session with 20 other APEC leaders.

The leaders were of the view that the process could start after 2029. They also emphasized APEC to continue to play a role as an incubator model for regional integration.

They also shared a common view that the focus of APEC cooperation is people and business circles, so that APEC vision after 2020 must be built upon "Bogor Goals" and additional areas of cooperation as a result of industrial revolution.

Vietnam`s President Tran Dai Quang, as APEC 2017 chairman, revealed that APEC`s vision after 2020 must be inspirational and ambitious and must be realized. (WDY)