programmes. In order to support and facilitate
the work in this area, APEC should explore the
establishment of an ‘expert group’ on value-added
trade to help member economies undertake trade
policy capacity research, exchange information,
develop approaches to statistics collection, and
conduct focused capacity building efforts.
3. Realise the critical role of trade in service
within GVCs. We shall continue on-going work
to promote open, efficient, and internationallycompetitive service sectors, and maximise the
contribution that services can make to strong,
resilient and reliable supply chains in this region.
We need to conduct targeted capacity building to
help economies better understand and stimulate
the development of innovative services within
GVCs, and build on shared information among
economies. We will work with economies at all
stages of development to create an open and
competitive environment for services development.
4. Enable developing economies to better
participate in GVCs. In light of the diversity of
APEC member economies, we recognise that
comprehensive economic and technical cooperation will play a key role in ensuring greater
participation of developing economies in GVCs,
and help them achieve their domestic economic
objectives. We will integrate economic and
technical co-operation into the paths identified
for future development, and further leverage cooperation activities, including targeted capacitybuilding programmes for helping developing
economies enter and move up GVCs. Examples
of these include public-private GVC collaboration
partnerships, programmes on human resource
development, and further work on technology
dissemination and commercialising creative
content. We will emphasise and adopt a multi-year
strategic plan based on the core agenda of APEC
and employ goals-oriented, focused approaches.
5. Assist Small and Medium Enterprises
(SMEs) to benefit from GVCs. We shall develop
and implement initiatives to assist our SMEs in the
areas that matter most to GVCs: infrastructure,
supply chain connectivity, innovation, skills, and
adoption of international standards. We will take
steps to enhance capacity building activities and
raise SMEs understanding of how to participate
in GVCs. APEC shall achieve this by facilitating
SMEs access to trade and investment related
information via increased utilisation of information
and communication technologies (ICTs),enhancing
intellectual property protection, and providing
further information on tools and processes that
would help them enter and move up GVCs. APEC
will also foster linkages between SMEs and MNEs
by helping our economies build an open and
transparent regulatory and investment climates.
6. Improve the investment climate for GVCs
Development. We recognise the importance of
adopting and maintaining laws, regulations, and
practices that facilitate investment. We reaffirm
the importance of continued efforts to improve
the investment climate in the APEC region. This
includes taking concrete steps to facilitate
investment as per existing APEC investment
documents, such as the APEC Non-Binding
Investment Principles, the APEC Investment
Strategy and the APEC Investment Facilitation
Action Plan (IFAP). APEC will help economies:implement sound investment strategies
●●
which deal with investment applications
expeditiously, fairly, and equitably; and
facilitate investment through creating
●●
and maintaining transparent and sound
administration procedures that apply for the
lifetime of the investment.
7. Adopt effective trade facilitation measures.
We reaffirm our commitment to achieving an
APEC-wide target of a 10% improvement in
supply-chain performance by 2015, in terms of
reduction in the time, cost, and uncertainty of
moving goods and services throughout the region.
Accordingly, we will further advance a capacity
building programme to address the identified
supply chain connectivity (SCC) chokepoints and
improve the performance of supply chains. To this
end, we will carry out additional concrete actions,
including the establishment of an APEC Supply
Chain Alliance and promoting co-operation on
green supply chains. We welcome the framework
for advancing supply chain connectivity through
mutual recognition of control, mutual assistance
of enforcement and mutual sharing of information
(SCC-3M) among customs agencies and other
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