1. The third Senior Officials’ Meeting (SOM) of the APEC 2018 will take place in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, on August 19 and 20 to discuss deliverables to be produced at the APEC Summit 2018, set to be held in the namesake city on November 18.

° Deputy Foreign Minister for Economic Affairs Yun Kang-hyeon will attend SOM in his capacity as head delegate of the Republic of Korea.

2. At the forthcoming meeting, the senior officials will intensively discuss main deliverables to be produced at the APEC Summit 2018, including those concerning the report on the Bogor Goals 2018; the report on the progress in the work to build the Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific (FTAAP); the progress in the implementation of the APEC Services Competitiveness Roadmap; the progress in the work on the Renewed APEC Agenda for Structural Reform; and the governance for the implementation of the APEC Internet/Digital Economy Roadmap.

3. At the meeting, the ROK will lay out ways that it will contribute to efforts to implement such major agenda as sharpening services competitiveness, achieving an inclusive and sustainable growth and building a digital economy; and will seek support from other member economies of APEC.

° The ROK will seek to draw an agreement among the member economies on the final text of the “development of a set of non-binding principles for domestic regulations of the services sector,” which the ROK has led the work on as a way to bolster services competitiveness in the Asia-Pacific region; and on specific ways to develop and work down the road on “an index on the services regulatory environment.”

° In a bid to contribute to the efforts to achieve “an inclusive and sustainable growth,” one of the main agenda items of the APEC Summit 2018, the ROK is conducting various projects designed for APEC member economies to share their relevant policies with one another. In that vein, the country will inform the other member economies of the ROK-led projects aimed at women empowerment, food security and other aspects of inclusive growth.

° On the sidelines of SOM, Deputy Minister for Economic Affairs Yun Kang-hyeon will attend a “senior officials’ dialogue on regional trade agreements (RTAs) and free trade agreements (FTAs)” on August 18, during which the participants will discuss ways to use RTAs and FTAs for mutually beneficial trade among their countries, and share with one another relevant policies of their respective countries.

* unofficial translation