Abac wants Apec results to last

The National Business

THE business aspect of the 2018 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation is under the Apec Business Advisory Council PNG, whose members are made up of corporate leaders in the country.
Abac PNG member Wayne Holding said that the aim was to make sure resolutions passed have lasting legacy on the region as well for the country.
Abac executive director Ken Waller explained the overview of Abac and how PNG was represented by business leaders.
“Abac is the Apec Business Advisory Council and each of the 21 economies form the group in Apec where respective prime ministers or presidents appoints three business leaders from their economy to form their own business advisory council. That council meets regularly through the year to advice leaders on business issues of relevance to the Apec agenda and that’s the main aspect of their role,” said Waller.
“Abac members for Papua New Guinea are Wayne Golding, who is chairman of the secretariat and an important businessman in the country, and there is David Toua, who is the chairman of the whole Abac meetings for this year and is an executive of Steamships, and Isikeli Taureka, who is also a prominent business executive. There are also two alternate members who are Stan Joyce, the managing director for SP Brewery, and Rio Fiocco, who is a lawyer in Port Moresby. There are similar teams from the other 21 economies.”
Speaking to journalists, Golding emphasised the need to have lasting results from the Abac events.
“One thing that is going to happen which has not really happened in the previous years Abac produces a lot of policies and a lot of recommendations during the year but does not seem to filter through that well, so what we have done this year is something different where all the events that we host will have a filtering process where at the end of each event there must be resolutions and recommendations. Otherwise don’t host the event as you are wasting your time,” he said
“Those recommendations will filter through to the senior officials’ meeting which are the secretaries and department heads, then onto the ministers before being filtered to the leaders and, of course, the wider audience at the CEO conference. For every event that is hosted there will be a panel discussion on its outcomes that include MSMEs and digital innovation, et cetera, and it will be included in the leaders’ report to be endorsed by the heads of economies.
“I have been doing Abac work for about 20 years and one of the things that concerns me is that after an Apec year is completed what is left behind in the host country is a question that has to be answered. So what we are trying to do in our events in the recommendations is to have something that we can continue to build on and not to just leave it at that. The struggle is what we leave behind so it does not get lost but continues the process of development.”
Golding also noted that PNG and Chinese Taipei will be hosting the inaugural digital innovation forum this week to discuss how to manage the impact of technology on businesses and economies.
The forum will be co-chaired by the Apec Business Advisory Councils of both countries and will run from today to Saturday in Chinese Taipei.
According to an Abac PNG advertisement in The New York Times and the BBC, the “digital economy is growing exponentially continually evolving to creating a surge in disruptive business models in all industries throughout the world. It is estimated that artificial intelligence will eliminate 1.8 million jobs by 2020 but also create 2.3 million new ones and blockchain technology is adding whole new levels of security and protection to personal and sensitive information.
“The digital innovation forum is a unique and powerful convention bringing together key industry leaders in a cross sector group of players from government and business for debate and conversation.”
Golding said the event is a first in the world and is an opportunity for PNG to create a legacy forum on an important global issue.
“We expect an audience of about 3000 people coming to that event from all over the world,” he said.
“This event will, of course, continue on from next year with Chile who will take on the challenge, but being the first we are aiming to have extremely high impact so that the world will look forward to the next one.”
Abac PNG will also be hosting several high-level meetings in Port Moresby. They include:

  • 47th Abac micro small-to-medium enterprises and innovation summit
  • Food security summit
  • Resource industry development meeting
  • Apec CEO summit (to be hosted on a cruise ship)
  • Abac dialogue with leaders

Those who are interested can visit the Abac PNG website to register.