ABAC Calls for Collaboration and Shared Prosperity at APEC Leaders’ Dialogue

The APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) has wrapped up its final meeting for the year, ahead of its annual dialogue with APEC Leaders later this week to discuss how to tackle the Asia-Pacific region's most pressing challenges.

ABAC has developed a suite of recommendations for APEC Leaders across the domains of trade and investment, sustainability, AI and digital innovation, healthcare, and finance, aimed at identifying solutions for a more resilient, inclusive, and dynamic regional economy.

"ABAC's mission has always been to ensure that business plays its part as a trusted partner in building a stronger and more integrated Asia-Pacific community," said 2025 ABAC Chair Kyuho Lee. "As we confront unprecedented uncertainty and fragmentation, we must bridge divides, empower businesses, and create the conditions for long-term prosperity for all."

At the heart of this year's dialogue is the theme "Bridge, Business, Beyond", reflecting ABAC's call for renewed collaboration across economies and with business. ABAC emphasizes the need for rules-based trade, resilient supply chains, and sustainable innovation to secure stability and opportunity for all.

ABAC has developed 41 actionable recommendations for APEC Leaders, representing the collective voice of business from across the region that include:

• On Regional Economic Integration: Continue to champion the rules-based multilateral trading system; accelerate the practical realization of the Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP); and create a more level playing field for women and others; enable seamless and coherent digital trade; and support resilient supply chains via stronger maritime infrastructure and a new APEC Centre of Excellence on Paperless Trade.
• On Sustainability: Advance ambitious, realistic and inclusive energy transitions; adopt a Greener Trade Framework to more effectively leverage trade tools to minimize climate impact; and promote circular, low-carbon supply chains.
• On AI & Digital Innovation: ensuring equitable access to secure, sustainable digital infrastructure, shaping responsible and safe AI deployment and governance and developing interoperable and coherent digital trade rules.
• On Finance & Economics: Mobilize financing to close the USD 2.5 trillion annual investment gap to fund energy transitions, digital infrastructure, and disaster response, while ensuring policy predictability and supporting a forward-looking Finance Ministers' Process Roadmap.
• On Bio & Healthcare: Expand equitable access to healthcare, facilitating the use of healthcare data and leveraging transformative technologies such as genomics and AI to tackle demographic.

ABAC also released two strategic policy documents. First, an ABAC Roadmap for Smarter and Inclusive Healthcare that aims to provide a strategic blueprint to transform healthcare delivery across the APEC region. Second, a report highlighting innovative solutions to more sustainably power data centers across APEC, urging policymakers to work with the private sector to accelerate the development of sustainable digital infrastructure - from data centers and computing capacity to water and power systems that support them.

Taken together, these recommendations chart a comprehensive plan for an integrated, sustainable, and inclusive Asia-Pacific economy - one that bridges divides, empowers businesses, and looks beyond immediate recovery to secure long-term prosperity for the region.

The Honorable Woo Won-Shik, Speaker of Korea's National Assembly, welcomed participants to the meeting. Incoming ABAC Chair 2026, Li Fanrong of ABAC China briefed the ABAC members on the proposed Work Program for 2026.

Hyungkon Park (Mr), ABAC Executive Director 2025 at +82 2 6050 3686 and [email protected]
Antonio Basilio, Director (Mr), ABAC Secretariat at +63 917 849 3351and [email protected]