Aquino faces most hectic week yet
President Benigno S. Aquino III conducts an inspection of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation venues, November 10. Malacañang Photo Bureau
It’s going to be President Benigno Aquino III’s busiest week yet—from moderating talks among leaders of the biggest economic group in the world to making yet another determined push to protect the Philippines’ maritime rights in the South China Sea.
Malacañang said yesterday the President was set to begin the week by keynoting on Monday the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) CEO Summit, a meeting of the region’s leaders and business heads.
The CEO Summit is one of several meetings leading up to the Apec Economic Leaders Meeting (AELM) with Mr. Aquino as chair.
The Apec is an economic and trade forum established in 1989 among 21 members in the Asia-Pacific. The aim is to explore ways to make goods and services move easily across borders, such as standardizing customs procedures and other business regulations. It is also a forum for facilitating cooperation in security matters and disaster resilience.
Members include Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, People’s Republic of China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, the Russian Federation, Singapore, Chinese Taipei, Thailand, United States of America and Vietnam.
The highlight of President Aquino’s week will arguably be the AELM on Nov. 18 and 19.
Attending the AELM are US President Barack Obama, Chinese President Xi Jinping, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Korean President Park Geun-hye, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, among others.
As this year’s AELM chair, President Aquino will moderate the discussions on building free trade and strengthening the region’s economies. Guided by the Apec theme “Building Inclusive Economies, Building a Better World,” Mr. Aquino is expected to push for economic policies that will benefit small and medium enterprises and encourage them to become global players.
Deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said the number of participants in the CEO Summit had grown from 800 to 1,300.
“So many are interested in coming here to take part in the dialogue with the economic leaders, and that includes Filipino businessmen. This is really a good thing for us. The interest the Philippines has been generating is simply amazing at this point with the number of participants wanting to come here and take part and discuss the [economic] policies [formulated through Apec],” Valte said.
While no definite schedule has been announced yet, President Aquino will also host the state visits of Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto and Chilean President Michelle Bachelet on Monday and Tuesday.
Then on Friday, Nov. 20, Mr. Aquino will fly to Kuala Lumpur for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) Summit.
Valte declined to speculate on the issues the President would raise at the 10-nation Asean Summit. “I don’t want to preempt the President on the interventions that we will be making,” she said.
In every Asean Summit he attended, President Aquino never failed to push for a code of conduct in the South China Sea where several Asean countries and China have territorial disputes.
Asean groups the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar.
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