From July 6th to 9th, the third meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Business Advisory Council for 2026 was held in Bangkok, the capital of Thailand. The meeting reached broad consensus on issues such as promoting the construction of the Asia-Pacific Free Trade Area, deepening cooperation in digital economy and green transformation, and maintaining the resilience of regional industrial and supply chains. It also formulated a policy recommendation report to APEC leaders. The business representatives attending the meeting jointly called on all economies to firmly adhere to open regionalism, drive new growth engines in the Asia-Pacific region with innovation, address global development challenges through cooperation, and jointly promote the deepening and practical implementation of the Asia-Pacific community building.
Shenzhen, China, will host the 33rd APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting in November 2026. The theme of the meeting is "Building an Asia-Pacific Community and Promoting Common Prosperity", with three priority areas identified as "Openness, Innovation, and Cooperation". The Bangkok meeting, from a business perspective, has achieved pragmatic outcomes, contributing industrial wisdom and providing practical action plans for the upcoming APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting in Shenzhen.
China has always believed that it is necessary to adhere to the original intention of APEC to promote economic growth and enhance people's well-being, persist in sharing opportunities and achieving win-win results in open development, promote inclusive and beneficial economic globalization, and build an Asia-Pacific community. Building consensus amidst changes and deepening cooperation in the face of challenges, and effectively creating a new pattern for the construction of the Asia-Pacific community, are not only related to the prosperity and stability of Asia-Pacific countries, but also to the stability and long-term success of multilateralism.
Building an Asia-Pacific community has been the consistent core pursuit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC). Founded in 1989, APEC proposed to deepen the "spirit of a big family" at the Seattle meeting in 1993, which can be regarded as an early expression of the "Asia-Pacific community". This concept profoundly grasps the general trend of Asia-Pacific development, advocates openness, inclusiveness, mutual benefit, and win-win cooperation, and provides important conceptual guidance for APEC to promote the construction of an Asia-Pacific community. In 2020, on the occasion of the expiration of the Bogor Goals, the 27th APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting adopted the APEC Putrajaya Vision 2040, officially announcing the official goal of "building an open, vibrant, strong, and peaceful Asia-Pacific community by 2040". In 2026, APEC will enter the "China time" for the third time after the Shanghai meeting in 2001 and the Beijing meeting in 2014. China will promote regional cooperation with a higher level of institutional openness and inject stable expectations and strong momentum into the construction of the Asia-Pacific community with its great power responsibility.
Openness is the lifeblood of Asia-Pacific cooperation. "Open regionalism" has been the core principle upheld by APEC since its inception, and it is also the fundamental characteristic that distinguishes Asia-Pacific economic integration from European economic integration. The economies in the Asia-Pacific region belong to different stages of development, ranging from developed economies to a large number of developing countries. This heterogeneity determines that the construction of an Asia-Pacific community cannot replicate the path of institutional convergence followed by the European Union, but must rely on an open economic system to fully unleash their respective comparative advantages, thereby enabling economies at different stages of development to participate in the regional integration process. In an era where some major countries pursue national priorities and unilateralism, firmly adhering to the concept of openness becomes particularly important and valuable. Over the past three decades since the establishment of APEC, the per capita income in the Asia-Pacific region has more than quadrupled, and one billion people have successfully lifted themselves out of poverty. This proves that only through open cooperation can the road become wider and wider. During the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, China will focus on expanding market access and opening up areas with the service industry as the priority, implementing a wider range, broader fields, and deeper level of opening up. China's sustained high-level opening up provides stable institutional expectations and scarce public goods to various economies in the Asia-Pacific region through practical actions. Jointly safeguarding the multilateral trading system and jointly creating an open regional economic environment is an unshirkable historical responsibility of APEC economies.
Innovation is the wing that propels the Asia-Pacific economy to take off. Currently, a new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation is progressing in depth, and the digital economy, artificial intelligence, and green technology are reshaping the global competition landscape. As the most dynamic growth belt in the world economy, the Asia-Pacific region can only seize the commanding heights of future development and inject sustained momentum into community building by adhering to innovation-driven development. Innovation can bridge the development gap within the Asia-Pacific community. From an internal perspective, traditional growth models have struggled to bridge the development gap. Only by vigorously developing innovative industries can we break away from existing path dependencies, leverage digital infrastructure connectivity, technology transfer, and knowledge sharing to help developing economies achieve leapfrog development, and promote regional cooperation towards community building. Innovation can open up new cooperative spaces for the construction of the Asia-Pacific community. From 2014 to 2026, the Internet population penetration rate in APEC member economies has risen from 52% to nearly 90%, and there is a strong consumer demand for innovative industries within the region. China has deeply cultivated two emerging fields: the digital economy and the green economy. It is committed to creating more incremental markets through technological progress and industrial integration applications, and driving common development in the Asia-Pacific through its own development. Jointly promoting digitalization and greening of trade is beneficial for all parties to enhance social welfare.
Cooperation is the cornerstone of common prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region and the fundamental guarantee for building an Asia-Pacific community. As a platform for regional economic cooperation, APEC promotes cooperation focused on economic development and improvement of people's livelihood, enhancing the sense of gain for different groups and ordinary people. The core of cooperation lies in promoting inclusive and beneficial development, enabling more entities to participate and share dividends, and making the entire system resilient in the face of shocks. From the perspective of industrial and supply chains, the Asia-Pacific region has formed a deep division of labor network dominated by intermediate goods trade. All parties need to cooperate to transform the efficiency advantage of division of labor into an advantage of integrated innovation, build endogenous growth capabilities centered on technology, data, and knowledge through cooperation, and jointly maintain the stability and smoothness of industrial and supply chains. Asia-Pacific economies should adhere to "holding hands" rather than "letting go", and "breaking down walls" rather than "building walls", using cooperation to address various risks and challenges. As Asia-Pacific economic and trade cooperation expands from tax reduction "at the border" to rule alignment "behind the border", deep integration in the field of trade and investment is imminent. The year 2026 marks the 20th anniversary of the APEC leaders' vision of a Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP) and the 10-year final review of the APEC Blueprint on Connectivity. As the host country, China actively promotes the exploration of the realization path of the FTAAP, coordinates with all parties to advance hard connectivity, soft connectivity, and heart connectivity, and strives to achieve pragmatic results on issues related to people's livelihood and well-being, such as energy, food, SME development, human resources development, anti-corruption, and healthy aging.
Since joining the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) in 1991, China has gradually transitioned from being a learner to a builder of international economic and trade rules, and has now grown into an important participant and active contributor. China firmly supports open regionalism and a rules-based multilateral trading system, consistently adheres to high-level opening up, actively explores emerging rules in new fields, leads the process of regional cooperation with utmost determination, and prioritizes promoting "openness, innovation, and cooperation". In the "China Year" of APEC, China will surely forge a new pattern for the construction of the Asia-Pacific community. (Outlook New Era)
(The author is an honorary researcher at the Center for Research on Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics in the New Era of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and Director and Researcher at the Center for APEC and East Asian Cooperation of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.)
Edit：Zeng Mengqi Responsible editor：Li Yi
Source：Gmw.cn
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