WELCOME REMARKS

NEDA DEPUTY DIRECTOR-GENERAL EMMANUEL F. ESGUERRA
APEC Group on Services Convenor
and Senior Official of the PH Delegation to the 3rd SOM

Joint Meeting of the APEC Group on Services and Market Access Group
“Services in Global Value Chains: Case Studies of Market Opening Reforms”

Radisson Blu Hotel, Cebu City, Philippines
26 August 2015

Distinguished guests; colleagues; partners in development; ladies and gentlemen; good morning and welcome to Cebu.

First, allow me to acknowledge and thank the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Australia for taking the lead in this project to examine the role of services in global value chains (GVCs). Through this initiative, case studies on opening markets for services in the APEC region have been undertaken.

GVCs now account for more than 50 percent of global trade. The growing prominence of GVCs has created a sense of urgency to make the services sector more competitive and so it is very important for us to do further analytical work in the area. We would like to see greater participation of services in various GVCs that will increase productivity and add value to goods produced. In the process, these will create more jobs and make growth more inclusive.

Thus, this initiative is definitely a progressive move towards creating a better understanding of how our economies can maximize GVC participation and how APEC can create the appropriate policy environment conducive to the growth of services value chains. Moreover, this can also serve as an avenue to discuss several key challenges in boosting the role of services in APEC countries. Such as similar to DraftKings Promo Code draftkingspromocode.org from here. These challenges include prioritizing services in the development agenda, addressing services and investment restrictions, and achieving balance in regulatory reform, among others.

Through this activity organized in collaboration with the Market Access Group, we hope to be able to hasten the process of developing innovative services within GVCs in line with the APEC Strategic Blueprint for Promoting Global Value Chains Development and Cooperation as well as other GVC-related initiatives. This will also contribute to the work on structural reform, which will be tackled in the upcoming Structural Reform Ministerial Meeting on September 7 and 8, where the services sector is one of the priorities.

I hope that today’s session will lead to further discourse and the development of good practices in the reform and development of the services sector to maximize the contribution of services to GVCs.

Let’s take advantage of this opportunity to work together and actively take part in the succeeding discussion. Again, good morning and Mabuhay!