1. The Foreign Ministry’s Deputy Minister for Economic Affairs Lee Tae-ho will attend as head delegate of the Republic of Korea the second APEC Senior Officials’ Meeting (SOM) to take place in Boracay, the Philippines, on May 20 and 21.

2. The Philippines, the APEC chair for the year 2015, has chosen the theme, “Building Inclusive Economies, Building a Better World” for APEC for the year and set forth the following as four agenda items for APEC to focus on in the year: moving regional economic integration forward; fostering small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)' participation in the regional and global economy; investing in human capital development; and building sustainable and resilient communities. The upcoming SOM will cover the following topics in detail:

◦ [Moving regional economic integration forward]

The participants will discuss ways to conduct the collective strategic study on ways to follow the roadmap for the proposed Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific (FTAAP); implement the second-phase FTAAP capacity-building project; support the World Trade Organization (WTO)’s multilateral trade regime; increase the use of the global value chain (GVC); and reduce tariffs on APEC members’ environmental merchandises as agreed in 2012.

◦ [Fostering small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)' participation in the regional and global economy]

The officials will discuss a possible detailed action plan in priority fields of cooperation, including trade facilitation, trade finance and e-commerce.

- The Philippines proposed an action agenda for global SMEs containing such details.

◦ [Investing in human capital development]

Among the topics to be covered are the APEC Scholarship Initiative, cross-border education, education cooperation projects and outstanding cases of human capital development for increased productivity, competitiveness and innovation.

◦ [Building sustainable and resilient communities]

The participants will discuss ways to enhance sustainability of economic growth; achieve disability-inclusive growth with the challenged being offered opportunities for education, jobs and economic participation; and improve response systems to such disasters as typhoons, earthquakes and tsunamis.

3. The ROK will seek more active participation of APEC member economies in APEC projects led by the ROK, including the FTAAP capacity-building project, the one designed to promote SMEs’ participation in the GVC, and the EoDB project. It will also make efforts to enhance APEC member economies’ understanding on its newly proposed projects, such as the one designed to develop the internationalization index of SMEs .


* unofficial translation