Summary Report - Second Senior Officials’ Meeting 2011.doc

ASIA-PACIFIC ECONOMIC COOPERATION 2nd SENIOR OFFICIALS MEETING FOR THE TWENTY-THIRD APEC MINISTERIAL MEETING 17-18 May 2011 Summary Conclusions The second Senior Officials’ Meeting (SOM) for the Twenty-Third APEC Ministerial Meeting was convened in Big Sky, Montana, on 17-18 May 2011. Senior Officials from Australia; Brunei Darussalam, Canada; Chile; the People’s Republic of China; Hong Kong, China; Indonesia; Japan; Republic of Korea, Malaysia; Mexico; New Zealand; Papua New Guinea; Peru; the Republic of the Philippines; Russia; Singapore; Thailand; the United States and Viet Nam participated in the meeting. A representative from Chinese Taipei was also present. The Chairs of the Budget and Management Committee (BMC), Committee on Trade and Investment (CTI), Economic Committee (EC), SOM Steering Committee on ECOTECH (SCE), APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC), Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (PECC), and the APEC Secretariat were present. I. OVERVIEW SOM Chair opened the meeting by welcoming officials and briefly summarizing the major outcomes from the first SOM in March. Chair reminded officials of the 2011 APEC goal of building towards a “seamless regional economy” by achieving practical results in the three main priority areas: (1) strengthening regional economic integration and expanding trade; (2) promoting green growth; and (3) advancing regulatory cooperation and convergence. The Chair also reiterated the importance of continuing work in emergency preparedness, especially in light of the recent natural disasters in the region. Officials were reminded of the agreement to further facilitate the use of public-private partnerships in dealing with disasters and risk assessment. The agenda (2011/SOM2/001) was adopted with no objection or comments. ABAC Chair gave a readout from the ABAC 2 meeting held in Seoul in April (2011/SOM2/019). The remarks primarily focused on three key areas: next generation trade issues, barriers to SME trade, and food secur