Over 11-12 November, Apec leaders will meet for a second time this year in a virtual space hosted by New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, to lay out a plan to implement the Apec Putrajaya Vision, the region's 20-year vision for an "an open, dynamic, resilient and peaceful Asia-Pacific community by 2040".
Through the Vision, leaders agreed to expand Apec's focus on growth driven by trade and investment with pressing issues of interest such as digital disruption and the need for economic inclusivity and sustainability.
Top of the agenda next week will, of course, be the ongoing pandemic. We've lived 20 months under Covid. It has damaged many lives and changed the way we work. While vaccination programmes have been underway since the start of the year, they continue to be uneven, plagued by distribution and supply issues.
The leaders will therefore deal with both the strategically long-term and the immediate. These two areas of discussion are not incompatible. The Covid crisis has exposed many problems entrenched in our economies which will only grow into more severe headaches for governments if they kick the can down the road.
The pandemic has taught us some very important lessons about how crucial intergovernmental cooperation and co-ordination is during a crisis. We've seen the uneven effects of downturns on certain economically exposed sectors such as the poor, young people, women and Indigenous communities; how economic, trade and health policies are intertwined; and how essential trade relationships have been as a tool for recovery. Acknowledging the historic severity of the situation, the Apec forum changed how it has held council for over 30 years by scheduling an informal leaders' retreat, virtually, last July. Leaders sent a message on the need to get vaccine rollout underway and for members to co-operate in setting the stage for recovery.