By Kenny Chee

FOUNDATIONS for a free-trade area spanning the Asia-Pacific will be laid at next week's Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) Leaders' Week in Singapore.

Ministers and officials from the 21 Apec countries, including Singapore, will discuss ways to improve the ease of doing business in the region, remove trade barriers and explore new growth frameworks.

Mr Ravi Menon, permanent secretary for the Ministry of Trade and Industry and the chair of the senior officials' meeting, said that Apec "is not ready to make a collective decision" on the free-trade area, which "remains a long-term prospect".

"But, instead of waiting, Apec is putting in place all the building blocks which, in themselves, are very useful and provide a lot of benefits to businesses and people," said Mr Menon.

He added that initiatives in line with this, and which would be discussed next week, include improving the regional business environment.

Reforms will be also considered in five areas: starting a business, getting funds, trading across borders, enforcing contracts and dealing with permits.

Specific goals include shortening the time to set up a business in an Apec country, reducing the cost of shipping goods among Apec countries, and simplifying customs procedures.

The Apec meetings will also identify five economies to champion the best practices in the five business areas.

Besides these economic-integration efforts, Mr Menon said Apec countries will renew efforts to fight protectionism.

This includes taking stock of actions they have taken to facilitate and restrict trade in a peer-review process.

The Apec ministers and officials will also be exploring new economic frameworks to make economic growth more balanced, inclusive and sustainable.

They will discuss issues like retraining and upgrading workers to meet changing job needs, and having safety-net programmes to prevent vulnerable segments of society from falling behind.

kennyc@sph.com.sg

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