President Lee Myung-bak attended the 17th APEC Economic Leaders Meeting in Singapore from November 14-15. In his keynote speech during the first session of the Meeting on Saturday, November 14, the President stressed the importance of free trade within the Asia-Pacific region and expressed Korea's will to actively take part in improving the overall business environment.

President Lee Myung-bak at the 17th APEC Economic Leaders Meeting in Singapore

  
On the first day of the Meeting titled “Retreat 1: Sustaining Growth,” President Lee engaged in an in-depth discussion on integrating the regional economies and regulatory reforms.
 
Leaders of the participating countries adopted the Services Principles and the Services Action Plan to promote intra-APEC trade and investment and agreed to actively reform regulations to  improve the current business environment in five major sectors by 2015.
 
Leaders from developing countries like Indonesia and the Philippines in particular welcomed Korea, the United States and Japan's plan to lead reforms to improve business in five major sectors. The five sectors are: enforcing contracts (Korea); starting a business (the United States, New Zealand); dealing with permits (Singapore); getting credit (Japan); and trading across borders (Hong Kong, Singapore).
 
President Lee underlined that more efforts should be made towards economic integration of the Asia-Pacific region. In relation, the President explained that studies and analysis of the economic effects of the FTAAP (Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific) have shown that free trade within the Asia-Pacific area would greatly increase the welfare of APEC economies. President Lee suggested a discussion on  establishing the FTAAP as a long-term goal.
 
Also, to overcome the current global economic crisis and secure stable growth in the future, the President called for continuous reform in regulations and increased efforts to reduce transaction costs. President Lee assured the participants that Korea, which is in charge of contract disputes, will actively lead the way to increase APEC's ability to resolve related issues.

On the second day of the Meeting titled “Retreat II: Connecting the Region,”  leaders of the APEC economies agreed on the importance of keeping up global coordination to overcome the economic crisis and pursue stable and sustainable growth in the future. The leaders also agreed to pursue inclusive growth such as establishing a social safety net and to strengthen free trade through an early conclusion of the Doha Development Agenda among others.

At the end of the session, a Statement by APEC Leaders on a New Growth Paradigm for a Connected Asia-Pacific in the 21st Century and the 2009 Leaders' Declaration were adopted.