“We are better now than 25 years ago thanks largely to our growth deriving from trade”

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Roberto Ampuero, inaugurated this morning the APEC Vision Group (AVG) meeting, instance that aims at proposing the High Commissioners a post-2020 vision to the Forum and the region, that could complement or replace the existing Bogor Goals that expire that year.

The group, constituted in 2018, is composed of “eminent people” of each economy, in charge of supporting and giving recommendations to the SOM for building up that vision. Chile is represented by Jorge, Sahd, Director of the Center for International Studies of the Pontificia Universidad Católica.

In his words to the participants, the Chancellor highlighted the need of looking into the future and being aware of the past, and of thinking how APEC is ready to connect the lessons of the past with a vision into the future. “We need a growth that is integral, inclusive and sustainable. You have been entrusted with a great responsibility, and Chile, as the host country of APEC in 2019, wants to help you reach the best possible results”, he added.

The Secretary of State also emphasized the discussion experts are having on the summit’s priorities. “What the APEC specialists and intellectuals are raising today is directly connected with Chile’s main axes that also include digital themes; inclusive, responsible and sustainable growth; women and their participation in the economy, and the SMEs represented because we want their maximum so they can integrate into the world trade”, affirmed the Chancellor.

He reiterated that Chile adopted the goal of achieving free and open trade and investment in the Asian Pacific, and has worked towards that during the past 25 years. “We made it because we thought that it was the best for our people. Today we can show that that’s true. According to the socio-economic development indexes, we are now better than we were 25 years ago, thanks largely to our growth deriving from trade”.

The establishment of this group was decided during the Leader’s Meeting in 2017. That year, a big part of the work of APEC was focused on determining the best way to address the inconclusive objectives from the Bogor Goals and which would be the mechanism to develop the vision for APEC Post-2020.

In those lines, the Secretary of State affirmed that “APEC could go back to being a key motor and an important contributor to strengthen the architecture of world trade. We have given you the task of visualizing which should be our main objective as a region in the Post Bogor era. We need something simple and with principles. And we have asked APEC to suggest the tools that will take us there”.

This year, Chile will be the host of two meetings of the AVG (SOM1 AND SOM3), and additionally will organize the Multi-Stakeholder Dialogue, event that aims to generate a discussion on relevant themes that should be included in the Post-2020 vision.