As host economy of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) 2015 Summit, the Philippines has the opportunity to shape the agenda and set the theme that would advance both national and regional interests. The Department of Foreign Affairs, as co-chair of the APEC 2015 National Organizing Council and as APEC 2015 National Secretariat, commissioned the Philippine Institute for Development Studies, through the Philippine APEC Study Center Network, to undertake research on the identified priority areas of APEC 2015 in order to gather expert analyses and insights that can serve as inputs to the various discussions during the summit as well as help advocate domestic reforms in the longer term.
This two-volume publication consists of the policy papers written under the Research Project APEC 2015. The project explores the four priority areas of APEC 2015, namely, enhancing regional economic integration, fostering small and medium enterprises’ participation in the regional and global economy, investing in human capital development, and building sustainable and resilient communities.
Volume I focuses on enhancing regional economic integration and investing in human capital development. It is made up of papers that tackle the pathways to the Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific, the role of services, APEC-wide connectivity through infrastructure development, supply chain connectivity, and human capacity building.
