US-China jockeying, South China Sea sidetrack APEC agenda

MANILA, Philippines -- Asia-Pacific leaders will wrap up on Thursday two days of talks that have been overshadowed by arm wrestling for regional influence between the United States and China.

The annual 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation gathering -- hosted this year by the Philippines -- is meant to forge trade unity but often finds itself sidetracked by other events.

This year the summit has heard intense rhetoric over the South China Sea, a strategically vital body of water claimed almost in its entirety by China.

Smaller nations with overlapping claims, including summit host the Philippines, are rattled by China's increasing assertiveness in the sea.

These actions have included a spate of island building on disputed reefs and shoals, and many Asian nations are looking to Washington for support.

China had been hoping that the long festering territorial dispute would not surface at the trade gathering.

But those hopes were dashed when US president Barack Obama flew into Manila on Tuesday and announced more than $250 million in maritime aid for those Southeast Asian allies.

He also offered a warship to the Philippines, one of Beijing's most vocal critics in the dispute.

On Wednesday, shortly before the trade talks got underway, Obama repeated Washington's demand that China halt any further land reclamation and militarization.

"We discussed the impact of China’s land reclamation and construction activities on regional stability," Obama told reporters after meeting Philippine President Benigno Aquino III.

"We agree on the need for bold steps to lower tensions, including pledging to halt further reclamation, new construction, and militarization of disputed areas in the South China Sea."

Vietnam also signed a strategic partnership this week in Manila with the Philippines, deepening security ties partly in response to Chinese assertiveness in the sea.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has studiously avoided bringing up the dispute at the talks in Manila.

But officials in Beijing reacted with anger to Obama's efforts to bolster US allies, while insisting China's construction work in the contested areas was "lawful, justified and reasonable."

"If there is something that should stop, it is the United States should stop playing up the South China Sea issue, stop heightening tensions in the South China Sea," foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei said in Beijing.

APEC members the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan have rival claims to parts of the sea, which is believed to sit atop vast oil and gas resources.

Obama and many Southeast Asia nations attending the Manila trade talks will proceed onto Malaysia for a regional summit.

The South China Sea row, the specter of terrorism and the US-led Trans Pacific Partnership free trade pact are likely to again be the main subjects of discussion in Malaysia.

source: interaksyon.com

APEC ministers agree to enhance HR devt

MANILA - The 27th Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Ministerial Meeting on Tuesday came out with a position to enhance human resources development toward acquiring modern and sophisticated skills for sustainable growth especially in the services sector.

This was according to Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario, who told a press conference that the Meeting successfully concluded with an agreement "to widen APEC's reach and impact under our theme of 'Building Inclusive Economies, Building a Better World.'

"We strongly agreed that we must enhance human resource development, and to that end, we agreed to pursue strategic cooperation in human capital development geared towards developing 21st century skills that will increase peoples' employability, productivity and ability to respond to emerging business demands," Del Rosario said.

The Meeting also called for greater science, technology and innovation as well as higher education to be placed at the forefront of economic policy-making and strategic planning.

The meeting also considered issues related to health and women's empowerment.

"Ministers also considered the need to develop strategic and broad-based approaches to address environmental impact."

"We endorsed an action plan on food security and blue economy, which will help ensure the security of the region's food supply by addressing illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing among others," Del Rosario said.

The meeting, according to Del Rosario, also emphasized the importance of building energy resilience and agreed on a task force to work towards increasing resiliency of our energy infrastructure from natural disaster and climate change through enhancing quality electric power infrastructure.

"We are working on achieving the APEC aspirational target of reducing aggregate energy intensity by 45 percent from 2005 levels by 2035 through collaboration on energy-efficient and low carbon development," Del Rosario said.

"We endorsed APEC's Disaster Risk Reduction Framework to facilitate collective work in building adaptive and disaster-resilient economies that support inclusive and sustainable development in the face of the "new normal" --- the increasing frequency, magnitude and scope of natural disasters and the resultant disruption on the increasingly integrated and interlinked production and supply chains," he added.

Del Rosario highlighted two major achievements for APEC 2015 that were developed under the Philippines' chairmanship.

The first, he said was the agreement to develop a Services Competitiveness Roadmap to improve trade and investment in services over the next 10 years.

Second was APEC's strategy for strengthening quality economic growth through good governance measures, social cohesion and environmental impact of economic activities as key accountability areas for each economy.

source: interaksyon.com