‘Developing nations can add to growth in the region’

By MARK HAIHUIE
DEVELOPING nations in Asia-Pacific region can contribute to regional inclusive growth strategies even though they may lack in this area in their own domestic setting, Apec policy support unit director Dr Denis Hew says.
He told The National that being part of the regional effort would help enhance economic inclusiveness in member economies’ own initiatives.
“In many ways, some of the recommendations that come out of the report does emphasise that it is not one size fits all,” Hew said.
“In fact, many of the inclusion policies are really on the domestic level.
“What we are trying to do at Apec is to look at best practices and what is being done, what has worked in terms of inclusion, on policies of certain areas and you can learn from there.
“Apec is a great platform for you to see what others have done to see that you can adapt that.”
Asked how much the PNG economy had contributed to the collective Apec gross domestic product growth of 4.1 per cent last year, Hew said there were positive prospects for the country.
“I don’t have the exact figure on how much PNG contributes to the Apec economy,” he said.
“All I can say is that there has been significant improvement in PNG’s economic growth.
“I think a large part of that is on the mining sector.
“We see that an improvement in the commodity prices and improvement of the local economy as well.
“That will be beneficial to PNG and also other Apec economies that have significant exports in the mining economy.”