'Belt and Road,’ APEC, together for new growth in Asia Pacific

One expounds a development vision of multi-party negotiation, multi-party construction and multi-party sharing of benefits; the other having long been standing as the region’s highest platform for economic and trade cooperation, the Belt and Road Initiative and the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) form a pair of objectives that represent the core interest and the pressing needs of today’s Asia Pacific region.
Since its inauguration, the APEC meeting has been committed to maintaining economic growth and development, increasing economic interdependence among member nations, strengthening an open and multilateral trade agreement, reducing trade and investment barriers, and promoting the common interests of the region. Continuing on this chartered territory, the 24th APEC Economic Leader’s Meeting, which was held in the Peruvian capital of Lima, was themed as “High-quality Growth and Human Development,” looking for new methods regional and global development.

The author believes that the APEC Summit shares many common objectives with the Belt and Road Initiative and could help move forward the belt and road through its multilateral partnerships.

First of all, APEC’s effort in accelerating the signing of the Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific (FTAAP) can directly facilitate trade liberalization within the Belt and Road framework. Of the 21 member states of APEC, the majority overlap in the Belt and Road framework. Like APEC, participating nations of the Belt and Road Initiative also look forward to the eventual signing of a free trade agreement through trade liberalization and facilitation. What’s more, the Belt and Road Initiative shares the common goal with the FTAAP in its promotion of investment liberalization and opposition to investment barriers.

The 22nd APEC Economic Leader’s meeting held in Beijingin 2014 formally broke ground for the FTAAP by rolling out a roadmap for reaching the agreement. At this year’s meeting inLima, member nations are expected to complete the consensus-based feasibility study of the FTAAP and offer policy proposals for the next step. These gains will help pave the road for expanding trade liberalization among the Belt and Road nations.

Secondly, APEC’s achievement in building an interconnected infrastructure network in the Asia Pacific region has significantly reduced the task of the Belt and Road Initiative in promoting infrastructure interconnectivity. As a priority area, interconnectivity in the Belt and Road Initiative not only means connecting roads, train terminals and airports, it also demands compatibility of policies, laws and regulations. It even covers the vision of the free flow of people within the framework. Simply put, infrastructural interconnectivity is of foundational importance to the materialization of economic integration of the region, it is what the future asks of the present.

APEC’s continuous effort in promoting connectivity on both sides of the Pacific and across the Pacific is in tacit agreement with the objectives of the Belt and Road Initiative. At the 2014 APEC Summit in Beijing, member nations approved the “APEC Blueprint of Infrastructure Interconnectivity (2015-2025),” setting the goal of accomplishing the agreed major tasks by the year 2025. Furthering the spirit of the Beijing Summit, this year’s summit in Lima is likely to deepen the implementation of that blueprint and make important progress in increasing cooperation in the global value chain.

Lastly, APEC’s effort in realizing inclusive development in the Asia Pacific helps and complements the sustainable development of the Belt and Road nations. One of the major goals of the Belt and Road Initiative is to increase economic growth. However, economic growth cannot be sustainable when the fruit of this growth benefits the few and powerful. Sustainable growth demands that its fruit is evenly distributed among all contributing countries and peoples. Ultimately, fair economic benefits motivate people, while it is people that are the driving force of economic growth.

The 2015 APEC Economic Leader’s Meeting was hinged on the vision of “creating an inclusive economy and making the world better.” In more concrete terms, the meeting focused on issues such as regional economic integration, small and medium sized enterprises, the development of human resources and sustainable development.

This year’s meeting in Lima was also tasked with making visible progress in promoting cooperation in the tertiary sector and among small and medium sized enterprises, progress which can provide firm support for the inclusive growth in the Asia Pacific region.

To conclude, since its inception,Chinahas been a constant participant and contributor to the APEC mechanism. Though time has moved on from the early days of APEC,Chinais still committed to accelerating and expanding regional cooperation within the APEC framework. Yet, as the initiator of the “Belt and Road” vision, China also commits itself to merging the ‘Belt and Road’ plan with the great undertakings of APEC. By combining forces, China hopes it can make an even larger contribution to regional and global economic integration and the world’s sustainable development.

(The author Xu Xiujun is deputy director of International Politics and Economics Studies at the Institute of International Politics and Economics Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.)