Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC ) is an inter-governmental forum for 21 member economies in the Pacific Rim which promotes free trade throughout the Asia-Pacific region. Following the success of ASEAN's series of post-ministerial conferences launched in the mid-1980s, APEC started in 1989, in response to the growing interdependence of Asia-Pacific economies and the advent of regional trade blocs in other parts of the world; it aimed to establish new markets for agricultural products and raw materials beyond Europe. Headquartered in Singapore, APEC is recognised as one of the highest-level multilateral blocs and oldest forums in the Asia-Pacific / Americas region, and exerts significant global influence.
The heads of government of all APEC members except Taiwan (which is represented by a ministerial-level official as economic leader)Conditions not right for APEC attendance: Ma . The China Post (27 August 2013). Retrieved 12 April 2014. attend an annual APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting. The location of the meeting rotates annually among the member economies, and a famous tradition, followed for most (but not all) summits, involves the attending leaders dressing in a national costume of the host country. APEC has three official observers: the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Secretariat, the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council and the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat. APEC's Host Economy of the Year is considered to be invited in the first place for geographical representation to attend G20 meetings following G20 guidelines.
History
The initial inspiration for APEC came when the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)'s series of post-ministerial conferences, launched in the mid-1980s, had demonstrated the feasibility and value of regular conferences among ministerial-level representatives of both developed and developing economies. By 1986, the post-ministerial conferences had expanded to embrace 12 members (the then six members of ASEAN and its six dialogue partners). The developments led Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke to believe in the necessity of region-wide co-operation on economic matters. In January 1989, Bob Hawke called for more effective economic co-operation across the Pacific Rim region. This led to the first meeting of APEC in the Australian capital of Canberra in November, chaired by Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Gareth Evans. Attended by ministers from twelve countries, the meeting concluded with commitments to hold future annual meetings in Singapore and South Korea. Ten months later, representatives of 12 Asia-Pacific economies met in Canberra, Australia, to establish APEC. The APEC Secretariat, based in Singapore, was established to co-ordinate the activities of the organisation. The organisation was initially an Australian initiative intended to secure greater Japanese engagement in the region, but it quickly evolved into a forum for broader economic cooperation. Its early years were characterised by a dynamic tension between members favouring a structured trade agreement and those, like the United States, who preferred a looser, more consultative approach.
During the 1994 meeting in Bogor, Indonesia, APEC leaders adopted the Bogor Goals, which aimed for free and open trade and investment in the Asia-Pacific by 2010 for industrialised economies and by 2020 for developing economies. During the November 1995 Ministerial Meeting in Osaka, Japan, a business advisory body named the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) composed of three business executives from each member-country was agreed to be established in 1996.
In April 2001, APEC, in collaboration with five other international organisations (Eurostat, International Energy Agency, , Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and the United Nations Statistics Division) launched the Joint Oil Data Exercise, which in 2005 became the Joint Organisations Data Initiative (JODI).
The Policy Support Unit (PSU) was established by APEC Ministers in September 2007 and commenced operations in 2008 as a research and analysis arm for APEC. As a part of the APEC Secretariat, the PSU is supported by voluntary donations and overseen by a governance board, and to support objective and high-quality research, analytical capacity and policy support capability to the APEC Senior Officials in order to promote policies that support the achievement of APEC's goals.
Meeting locations The location of the annual meeting rotates among the members.
+APEC ministers' meeting Year # Dates Country City Host leader 1989 1st 6–7 November Canberra Prime Minister Bob Hawke 1990 2nd 29–31 July Singapore Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew 1991 3rd 12–14 November Seoul President Roh Tae-woo 1992 4th 10–11 September Bangkok Prime Minister Anand Panyarachun
+APEC economic leaders' meeting Year # Dates Country City Host leader 1993 1st 19–20 November Blake Island President Bill Clinton 1994 2nd 15–16 November Bogor President Suharto 1995 3rd 18–19 November Osaka Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama 1996 4th 24–25 November Subic President Fidel Ramos 1997 5th 24–25 November Vancouver Prime Minister Jean Chrétien 1998 6th 17–18 November Kuala Lumpur Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad 1999 7th 12–13 September Auckland Prime Minister Jenny Shipley 2000 8th 15–16 November Bandar Seri Begawan Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah 2001 9th 20–21 October Shanghai General Secretary and President Jiang Zemin 2002 10th 26–27 October Los Cabos President Vicente Fox 2003 11th 20–21 October Bangkok Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra 2004 12th 20–21 November Santiago President Ricardo Lagos 2005 13th 18–19 November Busan President Roh Moo-hyun 2006 14th 18–19 November Hanoi President Nguyễn Minh Triết 2007 15th 8–9 September Sydney Prime Minister John Howard 2008 16th 22–23 November Lima President Alan Garcia Perez 2009 17th 14–15 November Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong 2010 18th 13–14 November Yokohama Prime Minister Naoto Kan 2011 19th 12–13 November Honolulu President Barack Obama 2012 20th 9–10 September Vladivostok President Vladimir Putin 2013 21st 5–7 October Bali President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono 2014 22nd 10–11 November Beijing General Secretary and President Xi Jinping 2015 23rd 18–19 November Pasay President Benigno Aquino III 2016 24th 19–20 November Lima President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski 2017 25th 10–11 November Da Nang President Trần Đại Quang 2018 26th 17–18 November Port Moresby Prime Minister Peter O'Neill 2019 27th 16–17 November (cancelled) Santiago President Sebastián Piñera 2020 28th 20 November Kuala Lumpur (hosted virtually) Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin 2021 – 16 July Auckland (hosted virtually) Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern 29th 12 November 2022 30th 18–19 November Bangkok Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha 2023 31st 15–17 November San Francisco President Joe Biden 2024 32nd 10–16 November Lima President Dina Boluarte 2025 33rd 31 October – 1 November Gyeongju President Lee Jae Myung 2026 34th 18–19 November Shenzhen General Secretary and President Xi Jinping 2027 35th TBA Phú Quốc General Secretary and President Tô Lâm 2028 36th TBA TBA President Claudia Sheinbaum 2029 37th TBA TBA President Keiko Fujimori 2030 38th TBA Singapore TBA 2031 39th TBA TBA TBA 2032 40th TBA TBA TBA 2033 41st TBA TBA TBA 2034 42nd TBA TBA TBA TBA
Member economies
Currently, APEC has 21 members. The criterion for membership, however, is that each member must be an independent economic entity, rather than a sovereign state. As a result, APEC uses the term member economies rather than member countries to refer to its members. One result of this criterion is that membership of the forum includes Taiwan (officially the Republic of China, participating under the name "Chinese Taipei") alongside People's Republic of China (see Cross-Strait relations), as well as Hong Kong, which entered APEC as a British colony but it is now a Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China. APEC also includes three official observers: ASEAN, the Pacific Islands Forum and the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council.
Member economy Name as used in APEC Date of accession GDP (Nominal) in 2024(Millions of US$) Australia November 19891,802,006 Brunei Darussalam November 198915,510 Canada November 19892,214,796 Chile November 1994328,720 People's Republic of China November 199118,273,357 Hong Kong, China November 1991401,751 Indonesia November 19891,402,590 Japan November 19894,070,094 Malaysia November 1989439,748 Mexico November 19931,848,125 New Zealand November 1989252,236 Papua New Guinea November 199331,716 Peru November 1998318,480 The Philippines November 1989470,062 Russia November 19982,184,316 Singapore November 1989530,708 Republic of Korea November 19891,869,916 Chinese Taipei November 1991775,017 Thailand November 1989528,919 The United States November 198929,167,779 Viet Nam November 1998468,485
Leaders MemberLeader positionLeader (mostly Head of government)Finance portfolioPortfolio Minister Prime Minister Anthony Albanese Treasurer Jim Chalmers SultanPrime Minister Hassanal Bolkiah Minister of Finance and EconomySecond Minister of Finance and Economy Hassanal BolkiahAmin Liew Abdullah Prime Minister Mark Carney Minister of Finance François-Philippe Champagne President José Antonio Kast Minister of Finance Jorge Quiroz CCP General SecretaryPresident Xi Jinping Minister of Finance Lan Fo'an Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu Financial Secretary Paul Chan President Prabowo Subianto Minister of Finance Suahasil Nazara Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi Minister of Finance Satsuki Katayama President Lee Jae Myung Minister of Economy and Finance Lee Hyoung-il Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim Minister of FinanceSecond Minister of Finance Anwar IbrahimAmir Hamzah Azizan President Claudia Sheinbaum Secretary of Finance and Public Credit Edgar Amador Zamora Prime Minister Christopher Luxon Minister of Finance Nicola Willis Prime Minister James Marape Minister for Finance and Rural Development Thomas Opa President Keiko Fujimori Minister of Economy and Finance Elmer Cuba President Bongbong Marcos Secretary of Finance Frederick Go President Vladimir Putin Minister of Finance Anton Siluanov Prime Minister Lawrence Wong Minister of Finance Lawrence Wong President / Leader Envoy Lai Ching-te (represented by Lin Hsin-i) Minister of Finance Chuang Tsui-yun Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul Minister of Finance Ekniti Nitithanprapas President Donald Trump Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent CPV General SecretaryPresident Tô Lâm Minister of Finance Ngô Văn Tuấn
Current leaders
Possible enlargement
India has requested membership in APEC, and received initial support from the United States, South Korea, Australia, and Papua New Guinea. Officials have decided not to allow India to join for various reasons, including the fact that India does not border the Pacific Ocean, which all current members do. However, India was invited to be an observer for the first time in November 2011.
Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Macau, Mongolia, Laos, Cambodia, Costa Rica, Colombia, Panama, and Ecuador are among a dozen other economies that have applied for membership in APEC. Colombia applied for APEC's membership as early as in 1995, but its bid was halted as the organisation stopped accepting new members from 1993 to 1996, and the moratorium was further prolonged to 2007 due to the 1997 Asian financial crisis and then again to 2010.
France, the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council's sole associate member, has also been mentioned for membership; France is present in the Pacific area through its overseas territories of French Polynesia, New Caledonia and Wallis and Futuna.
Business facilitation