Hosting APEC 2015 in the Philippines will allow the country to showcase how good governance reforms that have improved the economy and made the Philippines an important destination for investment and tourism, said a senior official on Thursday.
Hosted annually by APEC member economies, the Philippines will host APEC, a forum dedicated to open trade and investment, in 2015. It will be preceded by China in 2014. This year, APEC was hosted by Indonesia. On Thursday and Friday, government agencies and private stakeholders involved in the Philippines’ hosting of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) 2015 convened in a two-day interactive workshop to discuss vital and relevant details of the hosting process.
Amb. Marciano A. Paynor, Jr., Director General of the National Organizing Committee, said that the APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting, coming at the tail-end of the Aquino Administration, should be a fitting exclamation point, an appropriate bookend to what has been expectations-beating economic growth.
“The confidence in our country has reached new heights since our leaders decided to put good governance reforms at the top of the agenda,” said Ambassador Paynor. “We have reaped the benefits of this renewed faith in the Philippines as more and more countries have begun to seriously look at the country as an investment and tourism destination.”
Despite the tragedy that recently struck the Visayas last month, the President is assured that the Philippines has the capacity to host the Summit.
“President Aquino believes that the country can address the needs of both national concerns,” Paynor continued.
“The President is confident that we can rebuild the lives of those affected by Typhoon Yolanda, as well as marshal the resources needed for the successful hosting of a Summit that could bring in more economic opportunities for our people.”
“This faith is understandable when one sees how the government and our people have, time and again, despite limited resources, shown the world that even the world’s strongest typhoon isn’t enough to break our collective spirits.”
During the capacity building workshop, officials reviewed APEC’s nature, context, objectives and achievements; the institutional structure, mandates, roles and functions of various APEC fora; the process of maximizing participation in APEC meetings; the role of APEC Secretariat; and the effective management of APEC’s substantive agenda. The workshop was supported by the U.S.-funded APEC Technical Assistance and Training Facility.
“Activities such as these that aim to prepare us for this significant event play a key role in preparing our human resources for the task at hand,” concluded Paynor.

*  *  *