Aquino welcome: ‘People-centered’ agenda

President Aquino on Thursday said the Asia-Pacific region must create a “growth agenda that benefits everyone.”

The President emphasized the “people-centered agenda” of this year’s Apec summit in Manila in which its objective was to make all segments of society as invaluable participants in a growth that is holistic.

“As a founding member of Apec (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation), the Philippines’ approach to Apec has always been guided by our common aspiration for Asia-Pacific prosperity,” Mr. Aquino said in his welcome remarks at the opening of the 23rd Apec Economic Leaders’ Meeting (AELM).

He said it was this idea that prompted the Philippines to choose the theme: Building Inclusive Economies, Building a Better World, “which represents our vision for an Asia-Pacific that embraces a growth agenda that benefits everyone.”

“It is growth that creates jobs, sends children to school, puts food on the table, raises standards of living, protects the environment, fosters creativity and innovation and levels the playing field,” he said.

“In short, growth that balances the pressing needs of the present with our shared mission of leaving behind a region and a world that is better than (when) we found it,” he added.

Peru is set to host next year’s Apec summit.

“As regional economic integration continues to take form, Apec’s role—when viewed through the prism of inclusive growth—will be defined not only according to the future of economies but also of the people who drive economic growth,” Mr. Aquino said.

To emphasize his point before his fellow leaders, the President made the Philippines’ own experience as an example, explaining how government invested in its people the past five years.

“We are proud of our growth not just for growth’s sake, but because the Philippines has set aside trickle-down economics and chosen to invest in our people so that our growth is felt by each and every citizen,” he said.

Mr. Aquino said that aside from curbing corruption and exercising good governance, his administration promoted programs such as the conditional cash transfer program, training for work scholarships, and a universal healthcare program, “all of which help our people regain control of their own destinies.”

The President emphasized that this year’s meeting of Apec economies was “certainly an opportune time for us to reflect on how to move into the future.”

He noted that this year’s AELM was backdropped by the end of the UN Millennium Development Goals, the beginning of the UN Sustainable Development Goals and The Conference of Parties or COP 21 in Paris that “hopes to make a lasting impact on climate change,” and the implementation of the Bali Package at the World Trade Organization Conference 10 in Kenya.

There are also five more years left in the 2020 deadline of the 1994 Bogor goals in which developing countries must attain economic growth and prosperity through free trade, and open trade and investments. Industrialized economies should have reached the goals in 2010.

While Apec economies say they have made strides in terms of promoting and establishing free trade in the region, critics say there’s more to be done to reach the goal that the economic forum set for itself when the economies met for the first time in Bogor, Indonesia.