At the beginning of February, Auckland played host to the APEC Business Advisory Council’s (ABAC) first meeting for 2018.
The ABAC meeting brings together business leaders from APEC’s 21 economies, along with senior officials. Through its discussions, ABAC develops recommendations on business priorities and concerns to put forward to APEC leaders when they meet at the end of the year.
The main issues discussed in Auckland included removing trade barriers – not just tariffs but also red tape, unfair standards and slow bureaucracy, as well as regulatory hurdles for services trade.
The leaders were welcomed by Mayor Goff who underscored Auckland’s credentials as a centre for trade in the region. Papua New Guinea holds the ABAC chair role in 2018 and its representative led the delegation in a ceremonial welcome by Ngati Whatua Orakei.
Many of the ABAC representatives hold senior executive roles within some of the region’s largest corporations such as Moody’s, JP Morgan, Wesfarmers, China Construction Bank, Mitsui and UPS. ATEED took the opportunity to illustrate to business leaders Auckland’s impressive economic growth and introduced them to some of Auckland’s leading innovation hotspots including Auckland University’s Newmarket Campus, and GridAKL in the Wynyard innovation precinct.