The two-week First APEC Senior Officials’ Meeting (SOM1) and related meetings concluded on Friday (25 Feb) with member economies agreeing on several issues, including cross-border travel and trade and investment.
The conference took place from February 14 to 25. During the first week, 17 working groups discussed key priorities. Among them were trade and investment in the context of digital transformation, the COVID-19 pandemic, environmental friendliness and the enhancement of the service sector.
One of the key agendas Thailand has been pushing is the Bio-Circular-Green (BCG) economic model. This topic was discussed on February 22 at the SCE Policy Dialogue to explore how APEC can leverage the model to advance its work on sustainability. The concept was introduced as a post-pandemic strategy for quality growth among member economies.
Another highlight was promoting safe and seamless cross-border travel in the post-pandemic era, such as via the Safe Passage system recommended by APEC’s business leaders. The resumption of cross-border travel will be discussed again at the next Senior Officials’ Meeting in May of this year.
