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APECEconomic andTechnical Cooperation

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Economic and Technical Cooperation

(ECOTECH) is aimed at ostering

sustainable and inclusive growth and

development in the Asia-Pacifc andimproving overall economic and social

well-being o all citizens living across

the APEC region. The agenda is based

on the view held frmly within APEC

that the gap between developing

and industrialized economies needs

to narrow i the regions uture growth

is to be secured.

Along with trade liberalization and business acilitation, ECOTECH is one o APECs three pillars.

ECOTECH ocuses on capacity building and inormation sharing, particularly in developing member

economies, to advance APECs goals o trade liberalization and sustainable, inclusive growth.

Capacity building is critical as APEC increasingly ocuses on next generation trade barriers. Helped

by APECs work over the last decade, taris, quotas and other trade barriers at the border have

declined. As a result, APEC has shited to address behind-the-border issues such as structural and

regulatory obstacles in individual member economies. To achieve these goals, ECOTECH capacity

building projects apply across all o APECs Committees and Working Groups.

By enhancing developing members capacity through skills training and technological know-how,

ECOTECH strengthens members readiness to adopt new trade acilitation initiatives rom electronic

customs processing to regulatory reorm and transparency.

Moreover, to promote balanced, inclusive and sustainable growth in the APEC region, ECOTECH

capacity building projects also include enhancing economic opportunities or women, small and

medium enterprise innovation, and energy and environmental sustainability.

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What is Asia-Pacifc Economic Cooperation (APEC)?

Asia-Pacifc Economic Cooperation, or APEC, is

the premier orum or acilitating economic growth,

cooperation, trade and investment in the Asia-Pacifcregion. It was established in 1989 to leverage the

growing interdependence o Asia-Pacifc economies.

APEC aims to create greater prosperity or the people

o the region by promoting balanced, inclusive,

sustainable, innovative and secure growth and by

accelerating regional economic integration.

APEC has 21 members - reerred to as Member

Economies - which account or 40 percent o the

worlds population, approximately 54 percent o worldGDP and about 44 percent o world trade.

APECs 21 Member Economies are Australia; Brunei

Darussalam; Canada; Chile; Peoples Republic o China;

Hong Kong, China; Indonesia; Japan; Republic o Korea;

Malaysia; Mexico; New Zealand; Papua New Guinea;

Peru; The Republic o the Philippines; The Russian

Federation; Singapore; Chinese Taipei; Thailand; United

States o America; Viet Nam.

APECs work in the Asia-Pacifc region ocuses on

three main areas: Trade and Investment Liberalization,

Business Facilitation and Economic and TechnicalCooperation (ECOTECH). Trade and investment

liberalization includes opening markets and reducing

tari and non-tari barriers. Since 1989, average taris

in the region have declined by around 70 percent in

2011. Business acilitation ocuses on reducing business

transaction costs especially or importers and exporters.

From 2007-2010, APEC reduced costs at the border by

5 percent, which saved businesses a total o USD 58.7

billion. Over time the APEC agenda has broadened toinclude a complementary ocus on behind-the-border

and across-the-border barriers. For example, APEC

is enhancing physical connectivity across-the-border

with the goal o achieving an APEC-wide 10 percent

improvement in supply-chain perormance in terms

o time, cost and uncertainty by 2015. Economic and

Technical Cooperation builds skills and knowledge

transer to assist all APEC members to participate in the

regional economy and reach the APEC goals o ree and

open trade and investment in the region.

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In 1996 in Manila, Ministers jointly adopted the

Declaration on an APEC Framework or Strengthening

Economic Cooperation and Development to assist

member economies implement the economic and

technical cooperation goals outlined in the Osaka

Action Agenda. The ocus was to assist developing

member economies meet the targeted goals o ree

trade and liberalization through a concerted capacity

building and training program. One o the guiding

principles is creating opportunities or knowledge

exchange between industrialized and developing

member economies.

The Senior Ocials Meeting (SOM) Steering

Committee on Economic and Technical Cooperation

(SCE) coordinates APECs ECOTECH agenda

through a range o sectoral ocused working groups

rom energy to emergency preparedness. ECOTECH

capacity building projects are also carried out across

other APEC Committees and Working Groups.

In 2010, Senior Ocials endorsed a Framework

to Guide ECOTECH Activities or ECOTECH

capacity building projects and activities. Within

this ramework, ve areas have been identied as

ECOTECH priorities:

Regional economic integration

Addressing the social dimensions of globalization

(inclusive growth)

Safeguarding the quality of life through

sustainable growth

Structural reform

Human security

APEC implements its ECOTECH capacity building

goals by unding projects that include training

workshops, pilot projects and easibility studies

in a wide variety o areas. These could include

pilot projects to assist women-owned enterprises

participate in global supply chains or training

workshops on inormation technology to acilitate

member economies adoption o electronic single

window systems. ECOTECH projects are targeted at

building the capacity o policymakers, government

agencies and the private sector.

In 2011-12, a total o 74 ECOTECH-related projects

were implemented by the Senior Ocials Meeting

(SOM) Steering Committee on Economic and

Technical Cooperation (SCE). 32 APEC-funded

projects ocused on saeguarding quality o lie

through sustainable growth, 9 projects ocused on the

social dimension o globalization (inclusive growth),

21 on human security, 2 projects on structural reorm

and 9 projects on regional economic integration. In

addition, 9 cross-cutting ECOTECH projects were

implemented by other APEC Committees, including

the Committee on Trade and Investment, the

Economic Committee and Senior Finance Ocials

Meeting.

Regional Economic Integration Promotes convergences among member economies in key areas o APECs regional economic integration (REI)

agenda, including services, digital economy, investment, trade acilitation, rules o origin, supply chain connectivity, andstandards/technical barriers to trade. Explores building blocks towards a Free Trade Area o the Asia-Pacic.

Addressing the Social Dimension o Globalization

(Inclusive Growth)

Promotes Inclusive Growth including nancial inclusion, small and medium enterprise development, empowering

women, skills upgrading o workers, employment creation, and development o social saety net programs.

Saeguarding the Quality o Lie through Sus-

tainable Growth

Includes implementation o the Environmental Goods List to reduce taris on a set o environmental goods as well as

work on energy eciency and renewable energy, climate change mitigation and adaptation, and sustainable orest

management and rehabilitation.

Structural Reorm Focuses on the Leaders Agenda to Implement Structural Reorm, includ ing corporate governance, regulatory reorm,

strengthening economic and legal inrastructure, competition policy and public sector governance. Other activities

include implementation o the Ease o Doing Business Action Plan, strengthening nancial markets, and actions thatsupport implementation o G-20 ramework or strong, sustainable and balanced growth.

Human Security Promotes ood security, ood and product saety and emergency preparedness in the event o a disaster.

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Indigenous women in remote rural communities

are oten unable to take advantage o the trade

opportunities that result rom the opening o

new global markets. They ace many barriers

including the absence o linkages to international

distributors, lack o education and awareness o

trade opportunities and product quality control.

As part o the ECOTECH priority to address the

social dimension o globalization and promote

inclusion o all segments o society in economic

growth, APECs Policy Partnership on Women

and the Economy launched a project to assist

indigenous women micro-enterprises access

global markets.

The APEC-unded Womens Micro-Enterprise

Trade Network worked with international

suppliers, producers, distributors and non-prot

community organizations to establish critical

on-the-ground activities to link women micro-

entrepreneurs in Chile, Peru, Chinese Taipei,

and, Viet Nam to new market opportunities

in Canada. The project engaged local non-

prot community groups to provide training

and outreach including the Mapuche women

enterprise and artisan crat association in

Chile, the QillaMaqi in Peru, and the Center or

Womens Development in Viet Nams Hill-tribe

communities.

As part of the Trade Network, over 300 products

made by indigenous women micro-enterprises

went through a ormal assessment to determine

their appeal and success potential in the

Canadian market. Ninety products were selected

or urther market testing at two trade shows in

Canada in December 2011. Through the trade

shows and other channels, the Trade Network

was able to identiy possible distributors and

buyers in Canada.

As a result o the APEC Trade Network pilot,

52 dierent indigenous women micro-enterprise

products were ordered and another 50 were

under consideration or uture purchase by

distributors. The Trade Network established

linkages between Canadian distributors and

indigenous women micro-enterprises in Chile,

Peru, Chinese Taipei and Viet Nam, acilitating

export trade. The Trade Network played a key

role by providing product aggregation, wholesale

and retail sector development, distribution,

development o specialty and niche markets,

and brand and trademark development. The

pilot project also oered best practices and a

proven concept or replicating in other APEC

economies.

The Trade Network established

linkages between Canadian

distributors and indigenous women

micro-enterprises in Chile, Peru,

Chinese Taipei and Viet Nam.

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Importers and exporters oten have to process

permits and orms through a variety o

government agencies, costing valuable time

and money. As part o APECs eorts to ease

the cost o business transactions and reduce

behind-the-border barriers, APEC launched

the Single Window Initiative in 2007, allowing

or standardized documents to be processed

electronically through a single entry point.

However, the absence o inormation technology

inrastructure and capacity in some membereconomies posed a challenge to widespread

adoption o the single window system.

A series o APEC-unded capacity building

workshops on single window systems was

launched by the Committee on Trade and

Investment rom 2007-2012. The workshops

assisted economies in developing their single

Six hundred million more people will be living

in cities in the Asia-Pacic region by 2035. Itsnot just a question o overcrowding as people

increasingly migrate rom the countryside to

urban areas. It raises concerns over trac

congestion, air pollution, greenhouse gas

emissions and an overwhelming demand or

energy in the region. The Asia-Pacic Energy

Research Centre (APERC) predicts that the

regions carbon dioxide emissions rom uel

combustion are expected to increase by about

40 percent from 2005 to 2030 and oil imports

rom outside the APEC region are likely to rise

window systems by providing technical training

courses on sotware development such as UMM/UML coding language or building the single

window architecture as well as inormation

on standards and data harmonization. The

workshops also provided best practices on the

development, implementation and maintenance

o single window systems including IT and legal

issues. Training workshops are also ocusing on

the next phase to enable seamless data sharing

between APEC economies single windowsystems.

to around 70 percent. APEC is tackling these

environmental and energy challenges through

its Energy Working Group and as part o theECOTECH priority o saeguarding quality o lie

through sustainable growth.

To encourage low-carbon communities and

adoption o green technologies, APEC unded

a multi-year Low Carbon Model Town pilot

project in 2011. The Yujiapu Financial District

in China, about 40 kilometres east o Tianjin,

was selected to be the rst Low Carbon Model

Town. As part o the pilot project, a easibility

In 2007, six APEC economies embraced the

idea o a single window system. Very quickly,

the benet o this electronic single entry point

or processing orms was demonstrated. Enabled

by capacity building training workshops, more

member economies have adopted the single

window system. According to a 2012 survey,

14 out o the 21 APEC economies have now

introduced the single window system.

study was conducted by an international

consulting rm. The rm developed a plan or

the Yujiapu low-carbon town, including specictargets or CO2 emission reductions and other

measures o environmental sustainability. The

easibility study also provided guidelines o

how these targets might be achieved through

a specic selection o mitigation measures in

buildings, transportation, energy management

systems, area energy network, and renewable

energy as well as providing a cost analysis o

these potential measures.

Enabled by capacity building

training workshops, more member

economies have adopted the single

window system.

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Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) account

or around 90 percent o businesses in the APEC

region and employ as much as 60 percent of

the work orce. Yet they only generate around

30 percent of the regions exports. Since SMEs

are the backbone o the APEC economy, it

is critical to enhance the competitiveness o

this important sector. As part o ECOTECHs

priority to promote inclusive growth, the

Small and Medium Enterprise Working Group

creates initiatives to nurture the developmento SMEs and build their capacity to engage in

international trade.

In 2005, as part o the Daegu Initiative to

promote SME development, the Small and

Medium Enterprise Working Group established

the APEC SME Innovation Center in Korea.

Funded by Korea, the APEC SME Innovation

Center launched its Innovation Consulting

Program in 2009 to provide technical

Government ocials in Tianjin and urban

planners or the Yujiapu Financial District inChina now have a strategic plan or a low-carbon

town that will include electric vehicles and

subways instead o cars powered by ossil uels.

Roads and buildings will be lit by combined

operating systems o solar and wind energy,

and water treatment systems will do double

dutytreating water but also absorbing and

storing energy. The Tianjin Innovative Finance

Investment Co. Ltd is currently spearheading

the implementation and development o the

new Yujiapu low-carbon town.

and management advice to enhance SME

competitiveness. From 2009-2012, the APEC

SME Innovation Center provided consulting

services to 96 companies in 7 different APEC

economies rom Indonesia to Peru.

Remula Inti Rekayasa, an Indonesian

manuacturer o stainless steel tanks or use

in the ood and pharmaceutical industries, was

one o the companies that beneted rom APEC

SME Innovation Centers consulting program

in 2012. Companies like Coca Cola, Dong-A

Otsuka and Sanbe Farma are among its

customers. Ater conducting an initial diagnostic

assessment o the company, the APEC SME

Innovation Center consultants paid a ve-day

visit to Remula Inti Rekayasas production

acilities in Bekasi, West Java. The consultants

made recommendations to streamline the

companys manuacturing process and

workplace to enhance overall eciency. This

included rearranging machinery and equipment

This new town, once built, will serve as a

model or promoting the adoption o lowcarbon technologies in other Asia-Pacic cities.

Guidelines or the Low Carbon Model Town

concept have been developed and shared with

other APEC city planners. APECs Low Carbon

Town Project has also expanded to Samui

Island, Thailand (Phase II 2012) and Da Nang,

Viet Nam (Phase III 2013) and feasibility studies

are underway or developing low carbon towns

in these cities as well.

to improve the fow o materials throughout the

manuacturing process as well as developing a

system or managing the actorys tools. Remula

Inti Rekayasa is currently implementing these

recommendations. The consulting services

have helped enhance the companys workfow

and inventory management. The APEC SME

Innovation Centers consulting program is

helping build the capacity o SMEs in the Asia-

Pacic region one company at a time.

From 2009-2012, the APEC

SME Innovation Center provided

consulting services to 96

companies in 7 dierent APECeconomies.

The rm developed a plan or the

Yujiapu low-carbon town, includingspecic targets or CO2 emission

reductions and other measures o

environmental sustainability.

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For general inormation about APEC, please contact

APEC Secretariat 35 Heng Mui Keng Terrace, Singapore 119616

Telephone Number: (65) 6775 6012 Facsimile Number: (65) 6775 6013 Website: www.apec.org

For general queries, eedback or comments, contact: ino@apec.org

For media queries, contact: media@apec.org

Inquiries can also be directed to contacts in APEC Member Economies. A complete list o these contacts isavailable on the APEC website or by contacting the APEC Secretariat directly.

ISBN978-981-07-6708-2 APEC#213-SE-05.2

General inormation can be ound at the APEC

website, , which eatures news

releases, APEC reports, and the APEC Bulletin.

Inormation about APECs ECOTECH capacity building projects and activities is available via the

APEC Senior Ofcials Steering Committee on Economic and Technical Cooperation (SCE) at

Meeting documents rom the Committee and its various working groups can be ound at

Additionally, the APEC Bulletin provides highlights o APEC ECOTECH projects and how they have

benefted the APEC community.

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