APEC News

Director Klein’s Statement on the 2023 APEC Women and the Economy Forum

Issued by the APEC Women and the Economy Forum

Seattle, The United States, 20 August 2023

Director of the White House Gender Policy Council Jennifer Klein shared with ministers a statement that reflects the commitments and way forward for APEC to advance women’s economic participation in the region.

The statement laid out the priorities discussed during the High-Level Policy Dialogue on Women and the Economy, chaired by Director Klein on Sunday in Seattle and provided policy directions for member economies to support the implementation of the La Serena Roadmap on Women and Inclusive Growth.

Through the statement, member economies reiterated their commitment to advancing

taryGranholm’s Statement on the 13th APEC Energy Ministerial MeetingIssued by the 13th APEC Energy Ministerial Meeting Seattle, The United States, 16 August 2023 On Wednesday, Jennifer M. Granholm, the United States’ Secretary of Energy shared with APEC’s energy ministers a statement that reflects the outcomes of the 13th APEC Energy Ministerial Meeting, which she chaired on 15-16 August 2023. Read the Chair’s Statement As the statement notes, ministers tasked the APEC Energy Working Group to establish a Just Energy Transition Initiative to promote efforts to accelerate energy transitions within their economies as per their domestic circumstances. They also endorsed a set of Non-Binding Just Energy Transition Principles for APEC Cooperation. As the statement also notes, nearly all APEC economies supported a new collective aspirational goal for the power sector. In addition, the statement reflects that nearly all APEC economies supported a goal on reducing methane emissions in the fossil energy sector.  women’s economic participation in the region through four key areas: Building care infrastructure Closing the gender digital divide Advancing gender equality in efforts to address climate change, and Promoting gender equality in global value chains Understanding that women and girls at all stages of life continue to undertake a disproportionate amount of paid and unpaid care work, ministers committed to creating care policies and increasing investments in care infrastructure, as well as meaningfully engaging men and boys to take equal responsibility for unpaid care and domestic work. The statement also noted ministers’ acknowledgement of the persistent disparity in access to digital tools and support for stronger policy reforms that are gender responsive and address the gender digital divide.  To read the full APEC 2023 Women and the Economy Chair’s Statement, visit this page.   For further details, please contact: Masyitha Baziad +65 9751 2146 at mb@apec.org Michael Chapnick +65 9647 4847 at mc@apec.org Director Klein: Women’s Equal Economic Participation and Leadership is Indispensable Issued by the APEC Women and the Economy Forum Seattle, The United States, 20 August 2023 Ministers and high-level representatives from the 21 APEC member economies reaffirmed their commitment to further boost women's economic participation and leadership across Asia-Pacific. “The moment demands that we accelerate our efforts,” said Jennifer Klein, Director of the White House Gender Policy Council, who chaired the 2023 APEC High-Level Policy Dialogue on Women and the Economy which culminated the week-long Women and the Economy Forum (WEF). The WEF was launched twelve years ago by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during the United States’ host year in 2011 to unlock the full growth potential of the Asia-Pacific region by promoting the economic participation of women across APEC. Watch: Director Klein on Promoting Women's Economic Integration Director Klein explained the key objectives of this year’s WEF that are critical to economic growth, including advancing gender equality in our climate response efforts; expanding digital inclusion and innovation; strengthening the care economy; and promoting equity and equality and supply chains. “Achieving these objectives will require collective action.” “Over the past several years, we have seen time and time again that women and girls are disproportionately affected by crises—from the COVID-19 pandemic, to rising food insecurity, to the climate crisis—these inequalities fuel instability in local, regional, national and global markets,” Director Klein said as she opened the Sunday’s meeting in Seattle. “We know that there were rewards that follow from women's full participation in the economy,” Director Klein added. “Significant research has shown that closing gender gaps in the workforce could add between USD12 to 28 trillion to global GDP over a decade.” “Similar analysis by the International Monetary Fund found that countries could boost the size of their economies by up to 35 percent simply by eliminating discriminatory laws and leveling the economic playing field for women,” Director Klein added. Also read: Significant Progress Amid Persistent Barriers on Women's Economic Participation Director Klein also called upon the private sector to collaborate with governments in furthering the critical imperative of women's full economic participation, including by changing business operations to promote women-led micro small and medium sized enterprises in global supply chains. She said that investing in childcare and other care infrastructure for employees, addressing discriminatory gender norms and promoting gender equality should also be integrated as a core part of corporate business models. “To unleash the full economic potential of women across the APEC region we need to work in partnership, particularly with the private sector, which has a critical role to play and of course, much to gain,” Director Klein said. Director Klein underscored that partnering with fellow APEC economies, multilateral partners and civil society will be essential to address the 21st century economic gaps for women from the benefit of gender equality and women's economic advancement, as well as to foster economic prosperity and stability across the entire region. “Our work takes place during an unprecedented time of conflict and crisis with significant effects on women and girls around the world,” Director Klein said. “In the spirit of cooperation, I will call on all of us to work together in good faith to meet these challenges and create an environment that fosters the full participation of women and girls.” For further details, please contact: Masyitha Baziad +65 9751 2146 at mb@apec.org Michael Chapnick +65 9647 4847 at mc@apec.org Significant Progress Amid Persistent Barriers on Women’s Economic Participation Issued by the APEC Policy Support Unit Seattle, The United States, 19 August 2023 APEC member economies continue to make significant progress in key areas affecting women’s economic participation, however policy, data gaps and discriminatory attitudes remain as major obstacles towards gender equality in the region, according to a new report by the APEC Policy Support Unit (PSU). The APEC Women and the Economy Dashboard tracks recent developments in women’s economic empowerment across five key areas: access to capital and assets; access to markets; skills, capacity building and health; leadership, voice and agency; and innovation and technology. “What gets measured gets done, and this dashboard provides us with a valuable tool that helps measure progress in women’s economic empowerment,” said Dr Rebecca Sta Maria, Executive Director of the APEC Secretariat.  This is the first edition of the dashboard with data after the start of the pandemic, which allows comparing the conditions that women are currently facing with the situation prior to COVID-19. For example, 64 percent of women in APEC used mobile phones or the internet to buy something online in 2021, a jump of 23 percentage points from the levels found in 2017.  In addition, the proportion of women who have made or received digital payments in 2021 jumped to 77 percent from 63 percent in 2017.  “Aside from the disproportionate impact COVID-19 has brought especially to women, the pandemic has also accelerated the shift to digitalization, which encouraged women to adopt digital financial services” said Carlos Kuriyama, Director of the PSU. “As a result, women’s access to finance and credit has improved considerably, with more women in the region having formal financial and mobile money accounts,” Kuriyama added. Alongside improved access to digital financial services, the report notes that there are now 14 economies that provide at least 14 weeks of paid maternity leave while 11 economies granted paid parental leave in 2022, a significant improvement from single-digit levels in 2008. However, the gap in wages between women and men persists, with women receiving only 70 percent of men’s remuneration. “This data shows us the importance of having laws that mandate equal pay for women and men doing work of equal value, as it will significantly support efforts towards gender equality in wages, motivating women to enter and stay in the workforce” said Rhea C. Hernando, PSU Senior Researcher, pointing that only 11 economies have approved such law in 2022, a small increase from eight economies almost 15 years ago. While APEC as a whole promotes women’s agency and entrepreneurship, the region still lags behind in terms of women’s representation in leadership positions. Only 27 percent of seats in parliaments and ministerial positions were held by women in 2022 and this is already the highest level reached so far. “The underrepresentation of women in leadership roles has remained a glaring issue in both the public and private sectors,” Dr Sta Maria added. “APEC still has a long way to go to achieve gender equality in political decision-making.” “I would like to underline that aside from policy gaps, data gaps remain,” Dr Sta Maria concluded. “Generating sex-disaggregated data is key to better-informed and well-targeted tailored policy interventions.” The dashboard recommended several approaches that economies could adopt to end discrimination based on sex, including incorporating gender equality in education curriculums to guide mindsets of girls and boys from a young age, and eliminating harmful gender stereotypes that limit women’s potential, productivity and progress.  Implementing policies and practices in the workplace that promote equal opportunities for women in recruitment, training and promotion, ensuring equal wages for women and men doing work of equal value, as well as enforcing existing laws to reduce sex-based discrimination in access to education, employment, and finance and credit, are just some of the actions that APEC economies need to do today to accelerate the journey towards equality between women and men, consistent with their commitment to the La Serena Roadmap. To read the full report of The APEC Women and the Economy Dashboard 2023 visit this link   To view the infographic “Women in 2023: Access and Opportunities” visit this link   For further details, please contact: Masyitha Baziad +65 9751 2146 at mb@apec.org Michael Chapnick +65 9647 4847 at mc@apec.org APEC Making Inroads on Women’s Economic Empowerment Issued by the APEC Policy Partnership on Women and the Economy Seattle, The United States, 19 August 2023 APEC economies progressed efforts to overcome structural barriers that prevent women and girls from diverse backgrounds from benefiting fully and equally from economic growth.  Meeting in Seattle on Friday, members agreed to intensify their efforts to remove those barriers, and to close those gaps to rebalance men’s and women’s contribution to the care economy (both paid and unpaid), advance gender equality through budgeting practices, as well as mainstream gender in trade and investment. “Gender equality makes economic sense and it's just the right thing to do,” said Chantelle Stratford, Chair of the APEC Policy Partnership on Women and the Economy. “As the driver of global growth in the 21st century, the Asia-Pacific is well placed to lead on women’s economic empowerment.”  “More importantly, when space is made for women to succeed, they fill it, and they create additional space for others,” Stratford added as she opened the group’s meeting. “We all benefit from gender equality. It is not a nice to have, divorced from social or economic prosperity.” Watch: Advancing Women's Economic Empowerment in APEC The APEC Policy Partnership on Women and the Economy’s second meeting in Seattle advanced the 2023 APEC theme of “Creating a Resilient and Sustainable Future for All” by prioritizing discussions on structural reform and the care economy. Economies exchanged their efforts to carry forward the group’s priorities including gender and climate; micro, small and medium enterprises; global value chains; digital inclusion; and e-commerce. During the group’s meeting, economies heard from the private sector, represented by APEC Business Advisory Council member Gabby Costigan, who reiterated the importance of redoubling APEC’s efforts to improve women and girls’ representation in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) careers. Costigan stressed that the lack of adequate data to capture women in STEM fields has limited the ability of policymakers and business to monitor developments, identify gaps and address barriers.  Members also heard from international organization representatives and academia on how to strengthen the link between budgeting and key gender objectives, how to employ fiscal policy and public financial management tools to promote gender equality as well as how to bring a gender perspective to law-making.  Delegates also discussed how to develop a conducive policy environment that recognize, reduce and redistribute unpaid care work, this includes maternity protection, paid leave for fathers and other carers, early childhood care and education services as well as long-term care services. “It is clear that undervaluing the participation and contribution of women costs economies billions in lost revenue,” said Stratford. “We also know that the more women employed in trade-related activities, the better on average their working conditions, remuneration and work-place opportunities are.” APEC has made positive progress to implement the La Serena Roadmap for Women and Inclusive Growth to propel women’s economic empowerment in the region. Member economies were encouraged to further lift their ambition and accelerate efforts to improve gender analyses, and monitoring and evaluation measures across initiatives to ensure they deliver concrete outcomes for women and girls.  Stratford noted that the actions taken by many economies in pursuit of achieving gender equality is positive, however, to close the gender gap and to meaningfully address barriers to women’s empowerment, APEC must strengthen its commitments to creating a better life for women and girls.  “APEC has a real opportunity to show regional leadership by applying a gender perspective to the ‘three pillars’ of APEC–trade and investment liberalisation, business facilitation, and economic and technical cooperation,” Stratford said. “This will surface structural and systemic inequalities and focus our efforts on ensuring women can seize the benefits of this transformation.”  “When women participate equally in society—when they are economically, politically and socially empowered—we see communities, families, and societies thrive and economies are more sustainable, productive and resilient,” she concluded. Peru will be hosting the next meeting of the APEC Policy Partnership on Women and the Economy, as well as the APEC Women and the Economy Forum in 2024.    For further details, please contact: Masyitha Baziad +65 9751 2146 at mb@apec.org Michael Chapnick +65 9647 4847 at mc@apec.org APEC Confronts Risks, Harnesses Opportunities of Artificial Intelligence Issued by the APEC Committee on Trade and Investment Seattle, The United States, 18 August 2023 APEC member economies are exploring ways to harness the potential benefits of artificial intelligence (AI) while confronting its risks to the future of the economy and the workforce. In a panel featuring AI entrepreneurs across APEC, speakers highlighted the key role of AI governance framework in different economies and upskilling of the workforce, stressing that closing the gaps in digital skills through incentives, literacy training and certification programs are crucial for ensuring the readiness of the region’s workforce. “Artificial intelligence is a topic that is very rapidly evolving as everybody in this room knows; lots of different opportunities, lots of different potential downsides,” said Stephanie Bell, a senior research scientist with Partnership on AI, addressing participants at a digital trade policy dialogue held in Seattle last week. “In terms of the ways that artificial intelligence poised to potentially affect our world, it's poised to substantially affect productivity as well as labor demand,” Bell added in her keynote remarks.  She explained that the responsible use of AI could release a tremendous amount of productivity within the global economy, improve key basic sectors such as healthcare, environmental sustainability and education as well as enrich people’s lives and wellbeing in general.  However, Bell cautioned that without proper policies and governance, AI could negatively impact economies who have, for example, invested heavily in industries or in occupations that are on the verge of automation. Bell therefore urged governments, regulators and businesses to ensure that the transition to AI whether it’s used as augmentation or automation, is not abrupt and in some cases devastating for a workforce.  “Listen carefully to the expertise of the workers themselves,” Bell added. “They are best positioned to understand where these technologies can be well integrated into their workplaces, where you might be able to get extra value out of AI, and where they would welcome them, as opposed to resist them.” Speaking at the panel, Dr Nidhal Bouaynaya, founder of MRIMath, a startup that uses AI to improve the detection of brain tumors, highlighted the crucial role of governments in creating an environment that supports upskilling and lifelong learning for the workforce to reap the benefits and future gains of emerging technology. “The goal of this dialogue is to generate ideas for new workstreams in APEC, including those that could eventually lead to consensus-based norms and principles,” said Blake Van Velden, Chair of the APEC Committee on Trade and Investment. Participants recommended APEC economies to proactively coordinate with their domestic agencies, from trade ministries to economic development agencies, businesses and companies that nurture AI to labor departments.  The dialogue also underscored APEC’s role in driving stronger international cooperation in this area and supporting greater economic analysis to better monitor digital trade impact in economies.   For further details, please contact: Masyitha Baziad +65 9751 2146 at mb@apec.org Michael Chapnick +65 9647 4847 at mc@apec.org APEC Bulletin 17 August 2023 If you are unable to view the Bulletin or have images disabled, please click here.   Innovative Technologies, Digital Agriculture Necessary to Advance Sustainable, Resilient Agri-food Systems By Thomas Vilsack   Leveraging innovation and science, including biotechnology, can provide farmers, fishers, foresters, and other producers with the tools they need to improve productivity, sustainability and resilience. In 2011, the United States hosted its last APEC in an event that foreshadowed the challenges of today. We cannot wait another 12 years to act. The time is now, and together we can achieve sustainable, equitable, and resilient agri-food systems, which is the premise of our agriculture theme for this host year. To achieve this endeavor, it is important to recognize that food and nutrition security requires food be simultaneously available, accessible and stable. This is what I told APEC’s food security ministers a few weeks ago when I hosted them in Seattle. Constrictions within any of these components can result in food and nutrition insecurity. But the APEC community shares a commitment to addressing global food needs now, so that we can build resilient systems that can absorb future shocks, like pandemics, conflict, severe weather, and climate change. How we do so is challenging, but together, we all believe it is possible. We must work to collaborate, to share best practices and information as we all learn more about how to mitigate and adapt to a changing climate. Increasing agricultural productivity is essential to meeting the needs of a growing global population.  In order to produce more, while minimizing environmental impacts, we must leverage innovation and foster new ways of doing things. Only by leveraging innovation and science, including biotechnology, can we provide our farmers, fishers, foresters, and other producers with the tools they need to improve productivity, sustainability and resilience. APEC economies should increase research in the climate-resilient agricultural innovations that contribute to building sustainable and resilient agricultural sectors. These advances must be made accessible to producers of all sizes and types, in all parts of the world.  Open markets and science-driven regulatory regimes are also critical to innovative new technologies. Climate change adaptation and mitigation, and sustainable agricultural productivity growth are inextricably linked to food and nutrition security, further underscoring the critical role innovation plays and will continue to play in the future to address these challenges.  Accelerating agricultural productivity growth to reduce agriculture’s environmental footprint and reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from agriculture is also imperative. Without agricultural productivity growth, meeting the world’s current and future food needs would require increased use of natural resources, including the expansion of agriculture into forests and other critical ecosystems. Such an expansion would threaten our ability to meet GHG emissions reduction goals, even if other human activities were dramatically curtailed.  The consequences of failing to accelerate agricultural productivity growth could be dire. Research points to higher food prices, an increase in food and nutrition insecurity and hunger, an increase in poverty, an increase in natural resource use, and an increase in GHG emissions to name a few. Changes to our agricultural and food systems can only happen at the needed scale and speed if farmers and other rural stakeholders reap the benefits of sustainable climate-smart policies and practices as they strive to maximize their productivity and profitability.  To this end, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) is investing more than $3 billion to support 141 projects that will deliver significant impacts for producers and communities of all types and sizes, in all 50 US states. These projects will expand markets for climate-smart commodities, leverage the greenhouse gas benefits of climate-smart commodity production, and provide direct, meaningful benefits to production agriculture, including small and underserved producers. For example, USDA is supporting projects that will build climate-smart rice markets and work to reduce methane emissions in rice production through the adoption of alternate wetting and drying, furrow irrigation, and other climate smart practices. Another project plans to provide technical assistance and make direct payments to small-scale dairy farmers to implement climate-smart grazing management. The USDA also has a project focused on building markets and providing funding to farmers through outcome-based contracts for the reduction and removal of carbon dioxide through the adoption of new climate-smart practices among major commodities such as corn, soybeans and wheat. In total, the United States anticipates that these projects will expand hundreds of market streams for producers, reach more than 60,000 farms encompassing more than 25 million acres of working land, and sequester more than 60 million metric tons of carbon dioxide. We recognize that many lessons learned through these domestic opportunities may be applicable on a global scale. That is why the United States is committed to sharing information, best practices, and resources with the international community, and is doing so by standing up an International Climate Hub. During the meetings in Seattle, we heard how public-private partnerships are critical to the agricultural sectors’ ability to move towards sustainable, resilient agri-food systems which will enable our region to address growing food security concerns. The information and recommendations from fellow agricultural ministers, heads of delegation, as well as colleagues, provided insight and encouragement. As we work together to feed an increasing world population with limited resources due to the challenges posed by a changing climate, it is my hope that APEC members can strengthen cooperation and drive the Policy Partnership on Food Security to become a meaningful venue for proactive discourse and public-private solution building. News Releases • Features • Publications • Events • Photos • Videos Secretary Granholm’s Statement on the 13th APEC Energy Ministerial MeetingIssued by the 13th APEC Energy Ministerial Meeting Seattle, The United States, 16 August 2023 On Wednesday, Jennifer M. Granholm, the United States’ Secretary of Energy shared with APEC’s energy ministers a statement that reflects the outcomes of the 13th APEC Energy Ministerial Meeting, which she chaired on 15-16 August 2023. Read the Chair’s Statement As the statement notes, ministers tasked the APEC Energy Working Group to establish a Just Energy Transition Initiative to promote efforts to accelerate energy transitions within their economies as per their domestic circumstances. They also endorsed a set of Non-Binding Just Energy Transition Principles for APEC Cooperation. As the statement also notes, nearly all APEC economies supported a new collective aspirational goal for the power sector. In addition, the statement reflects that nearly all APEC economies supported a goal on reducing methane emissions in the fossil energy sector. These are only several examples among a range of strong outcomes on the interrelation between energy choices and climate future, critical minerals, expansion of new and renewable energy into grids, and providing access to affordable, reliable, and sustainable energy. For further details, please contact: Masyitha Baziad +65 9751 2146 at mb@apec.org Michael Chapnick +65 9647 4847 at mc@apec.org