Marcos pushes conflict prevention in APEC
PRESIDENT Marcos Jr. yesterday urged member economies of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) to prioritize conflict prevention in the region to sustain progress and boost innovation and structural changes.
The President, speaking during the APEC CEO Summit in Bangkok, Thailand, discussed the importance of addressing food and energy security, climate change, and how the Philippines responded to the coronavirus disease pandemic, among them the adoption of cash and fuel subsidies.
The President also said that nations should put into consideration the “geopolitical currents that we must live with.”
“The geopolitical currents that we must live with are some things that we still need to be concerned about. Because prosperity and progress are only possible in a world that is at peace, because we as nations of the world can never achieve our fullest potential unless we do it together. We must have our sights set high for APEC and for all member countries,” he said.
“But whatever plans we may have for our countries, for our economies, those will come to naught unless they are within the context of peace in the region and in the world,” he added while lauding the “very healthy competition and yet very healthy cooperation” among APEC member economies.
Building on the points made by World Economic Forum (WEF) founder and executive chairperson Klaus Schwab and PricewaterhouseCoopers Global chairman Robert E. Moritz during the event, Marcos also talked about the need for “structural changes” that need to be done to cope with and accelerate post-pandemic economic growth.
He said a lot of things have changed because of the pandemic and more things are happening because of recent developments.
“The changes that need to be made are structural. They have to be done structurally because this is a different world. This is a different economy… we cannot be too married to the ideas that we were holding as truths before and we have to be willing to make big changes but with the recognition that from what is actually happening around the world,” the President said.
“When we make these structural changes, I’d like to pick up on the point that Dr. Schwab made… that we must still continue to encourage innovation and to recognize innovations that can actually help and immediately put them into play or sent — if it’s a product to market or if it’s a system to implement that system. So, the agility that Mr. Moritz is saying, I think is the key to the future in the long term for not only the ASEAN, Asia-Pacific region, Indo-Pacific region, but for the whole world,” he also said.
