Aquino urges Apec members to boost ties with Pacific Alliance

President Benigno Aquino III, speaks during the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) 2015 CEO Summit in Manila, Philippines, Monday, Nov. 16, 2015. Ritchie B. Tongo/Pool Photo via AP

President Benigno Aquino III urged the member-economies of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) to have better  relations with the Pacific Alliance.

In a speech before the meeting held between Apec and the Pacific Alliance at the Philippine International Convention Center, Aquino said the meeting has united countries from different parts of the seas on a common goal.

The Pacific Alliance was formed in 2011 and is composed of Mexico, Colombia, Peru, and Chile. The four countries cornered 38 percent of Latin American’s gross domestic product, and 50 percent of the region’s exports. It is also geographically strategic for trade because of its position along the Pacific Rim and near Asia.

The United States has an observer status in the alliance.

“My hope is that we can spend this afternoon discussing how Apec can better cooperate with the Pacific Alliance, in order to discover how we can collaborate in our approach to common goals and common issues, concerns which often times place us on the same page, as neighbors in a the region and as growing economies,” Aquino said before the meeting between the Apec and Pacific Alliance members Wednesday.

“Apec, after all, will no doubt become stronger if it can nurture a productive engagement with other regional and international process. Thus, today, may we all maximize the time we have to share our ideas, and to listen to the ideas of others, on how to constructively work together to the benefit of both organizations,” he added.

Aquino said the Apec is working on similar initiatives as those of the Pacific Alliance – structural reform, strengthening quality growth, services trade, and supporting micro and small and medium enterprises.

“Our economies are separated by thousands of miles of ocean, and yet, more and more, we have come to realize that we live in an increasingly shrinking world,” Aquino said.

“These past few years, economies have become increasingly intertwined, and I believe it is an opportune time for us to work more closely with one another—to sit down and discuss, as Pacific neighbors—and as economies with long, shared histories—how we can cooperate and accelerate our collective pursuit of prosperity,” Aquino added.

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