1. Deputy Minister for Economic Affairs Lee Seong-ho attended the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Concluding Senior Officials Meeting held in a virtual format on November 5 (Fri), and reviewed the progress made for the past year and discussed the direction for future activities to prepare for the 2021 APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting and Ministerial Meeting.

2. At this meeting, member economies appreciated that APEC succeeded in maintaining the basis of regional cooperation for public health response and economic recovery even amid the COVID-19 pandemic through virtual meetings, and reviewed the progress in the preparation for the Leaders’ and Ministerial Meetings and in the work related to key accomplishments.

ㅇ Senior Officials appreciated this year’s achievements of APEC committees such as the Committee on Trade and Investment and the SOM Steering Committee on ECOTECH and they discussed the Asia-Pacific region’s liberalization of trade and investment, strengthening service sector competitiveness, minimizing trade restrictions in the region, etc.

ㅇ Member economies, in particular, tentatively agreed on the final draft of the implementation plan for the Putrajaya Vision 2040 that suggests the direction of activities of APEC for the next 20 years (2021-2040) and decided to adopt the draft as a key achievement of the APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting.

3. Deputy Minister for Economic Affairs Lee Seong-ho welcomed the progress and achievements made by diverse projects in APEC this year and introduced contributions of Korea, saying that Korea will continue to actively contribute to cooperation projects in APEC.

ㅇ In particular, he explained Korea’s contributions in the key achievements of APEC this year such as discussion on minimizing trade restrictions, facilitation of regional economic integration, the APEC Services Competitiveness Roadmap (ASCR) Mid-Term Review (MTR) and publication of the implementation report of the APEC Internet and Digital Economy Roadmap (AIDER).

4. This meeting served as an opportunity to reaffirm the member economies’ will to cooperate to hold successful APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting and APEC Ministerial Meeting even amid the prolonged pandemic as well as maintain the continuity of activities of APEC and increase the momentum of cooperation by exchanging constructive opinions on the future path of APEC based on its previous achievement.