ABAC Calls for Collaboration and Shared Prosperity at APEC Leaders’ Dialogue
Busan, 28 October — 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 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.”
Collaboration for Shared Prosperity
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.
Key Actions and Recommendations
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.
APEC Member Economies: Australia; Brunei Darussalam; Canada; Chile; China; Hong Kong, China; Indonesia; Japan; Korea; Malaysia; Mexico; New Zealand; Papua New Guinea; Peru; Philippines; Russia; Singapore; Chinese Taipei; Thailand; United States of America; and Viet Nam.
ABAC was created by APEC Leaders in 1995 to be the primary voice of business in APEC. Each economy has three members who are appointed by their respective Leaders. They meet four times a year in preparation for the presentation of their recommendations to the Leaders in a dialogue that is a key event in the annual Leaders Meeting.
Under Korea’s leadership, ABAC is pursuing a work program under the theme “Bridge. Business. Beyond.” to respond to the challenge of maintaining the economic vitality of the Asia-Pacific Region and ensure it benefits all.
ABAC 2025 Chair is Kyuho Lee (Korea) and the Co-Chairs are Julia Torreblanca (Peru) and Li Fanrong (China), with five (5) working group chairs, namely: Anna Curzon, Regional Economic Integration Working Group (REIWG); Junichiro Ikeda, Sustainability Working Group (SWG); Michaela Browning, Finance and Economic Working Group (FEWG); Jan De Silva, AI and Digital Innovation Working Group (AIDIWG); and Kyuho Lee, Bio and Healthcare Working Group (BHWG).
For further information please contact:
Mr.Hyungkon Park, ABAC Executive Director 2025 Phone: +82 2 6050 3686 Email: 2025apecabac@korcham.net
Mr.Antonio Basilio, Director, ABAC Secretariat Mobile: +63 917 849 3351 Email: abacsec@pfgc.ph
