Brisbane, Australia, 25 February 2025 – Among rising global economic tension, the APEC Business Advisory Council met in Brisbane this week to reaffirm its support for the value of trade and cooperation, and the original APEC commitment to free, fair, open and rules-based trade.

Members expressed alarm at the escalating challenges posed by rising protectionism, regulatory complexity and other challenges including climate change, ageing populations, declining growth rates for member economies and the business environment.  Global uncertainty impacts trade flows, business planning and investment decision-making.  Now more than ever, business and government must come together for the benefit of all.

Economies must remain alert to emerging and disruptive technologies, including advancements in artificial intelligence and quantum computing, which offer both enormous promise and challenge to our economic development.

“We must also redouble our efforts to put in place tangible enabling solutions like paperless trade, trade facilitation, resilient supply chains and other tangible items that ABAC 2025 aims for,” said ABAC Chair 2025 H. S. Cho.

ABAC underscored the need for robust trade architecture, emphasizing that a strengthened WTO and the APEC vision for a Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP) are vital counterweights to economic fragmentation. ABAC believes that this is the way to ensure fair, mutually beneficial trade as economies navigate the challenges of digital transformation and the climate crisis. 

ABAC has adopted an ambitious theme for the year: ‘Bridge. Business. Beyond’. The 2025 work program emphasizes the role of business in connecting policymakers and stakeholders across the region, driving innovative growth, and shared prosperity.

The ABAC work program is both visionary and practical.  For example, ABAC is looking at how to use digital tools like AI to promote small-business formalization, create smart health systems, and tackle the carbon transition, including energy.  Economies must also urgently address gaps in infrastructure investment for energy security, energy transition, and digital transformation.

ABAC wants to use the FTAAP process to drive quick progress on safer and more resilient supply chains, advance digital trade interoperability, and unlock green trade.

ABAC remains committed to breaking down the barriers to women’s economic success, including by being able to tap into the venture capital they need and by closing the gender pay gap.

ABAC will also develop recommendations to narrow the digital divide by using digital tools including AI, to support MSMEs to transition to the formal economy and access global markets.

On meeting the challenges posed by aging populations, rising healthcare costs, and inequities in accessing medical services, ABAC will be developing recommendations for innovative, inclusive and smart health care systems. This will incorporate sustainable financing mechanisms, advanced health care models and the integration of digital health tools to enhance accessibility, efficiency and resilience of healthcare systems.

To meet decarbonization goals amid rising electricity demand, ABAC will also develop recommendations to achieve a realistic and ambitious energy transition by utilizing advanced technologies to increase low carbon investments and expanding transition finance, supported by international cooperation and the development of low-carbon roadmaps.

In a series of dynamic discussions with APEC Senior Officials, ABAC members sought to align priorities to produce actionable recommendations for Leaders. “These discussions are the first of many interactions that we will have with policymakers and Ministers this year.  We are keen to ensure that the business perspective is woven into key policy decisions,” the Chair added.

The Chair expressed ABAC’s deep gratitude to the Australian government, particularly to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, for their support in hosting this meeting.

ABAC will reconvene in late April in Toronto, Canada, as it continues to develop its recommendations to achieve APEC’s goals, for presentation to APEC Leaders during their summit in October in Korea.