'APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting highlights multilateralism'

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Kuala Lumpur, Nov 18 (IANS) The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on world economy have highlighted the importance of multilateralism, Chair of APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) Rohana Mahmood said.

Rohana made the remarks here in an interview with Xinhua on Wednesday, ahead of the virtual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders' Meeting. Rohana said no economies could face challenges alone, and the only way forward is multilateralism and international cooperation.

"COVID-19 is a global pandemic ... and the message that we hope APEC leaders will send out is the need for collaboration and cooperation to ensure not just socio-economic issues but public health issues as well must be resolved," she said.

"When you look at COVID-19, when you look at trade and investment, when you're looking at supply chains, you cannot do things on your own. You have to cooperate, you have to ensure you can trade with other countries, you have to ensure there's movement across borders," she said.

Malaysia is to host the virtual APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting this week and the meeting is expected to launch a Post-2020 Vision to replace Bogor Goals which expires by the end of this year.

In its annual report, ABAC called for the Post-2020 Vision to ensure free and open trade and investment, continue to promote sustainable and inclusive growth and move towards a Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP).

Rohana said it was very impressive that China was able to foster economic recovery very quickly after containing the COVID-19 outbreak.

"For each economy the approach is quite different," she said. "But you have to admire what China did and how quickly they did it."

Rohana expressed the hope that China will continue to work with others in the fight against COVID-19 and the resumption of economy.

--IANS

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