Executive Director of the APEC Secretariat Eduardo Pedrosa has spoken highly of China's leadership role in promoting regional and global development within the framework.
In an interview with China Central Television (CCTV) on Wednesday on the sidelines of the ongoing APEC CEO Summit in Gyeongju, Republic of Korea (ROK), Pedrosa talked about China's contributions and APEC's role in a changing world.
Pedrosa expressed admiration for China's modernization and rapid development during the interview.
"I've been visiting China -- I don't know how many times -- many, many times. But as I walk through the streets of Beijing, you see the development of these cities as you visit every two months, three months and six months. And there are other cities like Tianjin where again you've seen this very rapid development," he said. On China's contributions to APEC, Pedrosa highlighted influential roadmaps drawn up when China hosted the APEC Economic Leaders' Meetings over the past years.
China has hosted the APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting twice since APEC's founding in 1989, and China will host the prestigious gathering again in 2026.
"China has always been a very active member of APEC. Ever since it joined, there's been a great deal of thinking initially about how does China reform. So from that period on, China then took on a much stronger leadership role in thinking about what needs to happen to make the region and the world more prosperous. And then when China hosted APEC again in 2014, they came up with the Beijing Roadmap for the FTAAP (Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific). But it also took on the blueprint for connectivity. That blueprint for connectivity is really essential to the future of the region," said the executive director.
Pedrosa also elaborated on globalization and openness in today's world, saying that they are critical to the future of the region.
Openness, like integration in the Asia-Pacific region, can play a supporting role to an open world economy, he noted.
"The world's changing, the multilateral trading system needs to be updated. So how will we update it is a very big question. So APEC sees itself as an incubator -- an incubator of ideas, how to do things. There are so many instances where APEC initiatives have found their way into global governance because of APEC's diversity. We have big economies, small economies, island size economies. We're able to bring that diversity together and through that unity, come up with ideas that benefit the whole world," said Pedrosa.
APEC official lauds China's leading role in regional, global development
