Minister of International Trade and Industry, YB Dato’ Sri Mustapa Mohamed attended the 27th APEC Ministerial Meeting held in Manila today.  Ministers discussed how APEC economies can work together to sustain the momentum towards achieving inclusive regional economic integration amidst the current state of regional and global economic environments.

Minister Mustapa began his intervention by sharing his grief over the atrocities that struck Paris.  He reiterated that as a moderate Muslim country, Malaysia stands united with the rest of the world in condemning any acts of terrorism.

Minister Mustapa further stressed on the need for APEC to continue to ensure regional economic growth, prosperity, sustainability and security, amidst the challenging global economic developments.  “This is to guarantee that trade and investment activities continue to grow and benefit not only the business community but also the people at large in a balanced, inclusive and sustainable manner” he said.

Minister Mustapa drew attention to the launch of the ASEAN Economic Community next week.  This effort, combined with the opportunities under APEC, will accelerate the growth and development of a highly competitive and inclusive Asia Pacific region. He further highlighted Malaysia’s initiatives towards ensuring quality growth by putting in place people-centric budget that will address the needs of both the Bottom-40 and the Middle-40 groups of the society.

Minister Mustapa continued to stress that APEC needs to maintain top priority on realising the Bogor Goals of free trade and investment by 2020.  This can be accelerated through tariff reduction commitments and resisting all forms of protectionist measures. He emphasised that both efforts are key to facilitate business within and across the borders.
Minister Mustapa expressed his optimism that deeper regional economic integration will be achieved with the implementation of regional undertakings among APEC members and beyond.  “The work on the Collective Strategic Study on APEC’s Contribution towards the Realisation of the Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific (FTAAP) is important given that negotiations on the TPP have been concluded.  We recognise that TPP and RCEP are the building blocks for FTAAP but this will not diminish our support for the multilateral trading system”, he emphasised. Malaysia is part of the drafting committee of the FTAAP Collective Strategic Study.

Malaysia commended the Philippines for its focus on MSMEs this year.  “It is important for the bigger companies to ensure that MSMEs are included in their global value and supply chains, and perhaps we must encourage multinationals to mentor MSMEs, thus assisting in their capacity building and enabling them to become global players,” said Minister Mustapa.

In 2014, APEC economies accounted for 40% of world population (2.8 billion people), 57% of world GDP (US$ 44.1 billion), 48.5% of global trade (US$ 18.5 billion), and 53.1% of global FDI inflow (US$652 billion).  For Malaysia, APEC economies constitute 75.9% (RM1.1 trillion) of our total trade, and 34.4% (RM12.2 billion) of total FDIs in Malaysia (while approved projects with APEC participation in the manufacturing sector amounted to RM27.7 billion (70.1%)).

Ministry of International Trade and Industry
16 November 2015, Manila