The state must help athletes to transition

Gary Chen

     The Taipei Summer Universiade’s conclusion is a reminder that young athletes must consider what their professional career will be after their competitive career ends. Not too far down the road, they will need adequate professional skills to build a second career.

     Youth employability has been one of the main focuses of APEC. During last year’s APEC education ministerial meeting, the topics included how best to address rapid social change.

Moving forward despite of protectionist turbulence

Eric Chiou

    The year of 2017, from various perspectives, can be viewed as a critical test for the development of regional integration in the Asia-Pacific. Although numerous challenges have appeared and, to different extents, obstructed the further progress of regional integration in the area, the fact shows that the determination of most countries in the Asia-Pacific region to continue deepening regional economic integration has not been wavered. The most significant evidence is that the Declaration of the 2017 APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting has indicated no sign of retreating back from APEC’s consistent commitment on facilitating a free and open regional environment.

APEC 2017 Outcomes and Looking Forward

Wayne Chen

After 10 years, Vietnam again hosted APEC in 2017 and held the Summit in Da Nang in November. Under the theme of Creating New Dynamism, Fostering a Shared Future, 4 priority areas were identified, namely, 1) Fostering Sustainable, Innovative and Inclusive Growth; 2) Deepening Regional Economic Integration; 3) Strengthening MSMEs’ Competitiveness and Innovation in the Digital Age, and; 4) Enhancing Food Security and Sustainable Agriculture in Response to Climate Change.

Inclusive Growth Agenda for the Asia-Pacific Region

CTPECC

  
   The Asia-Pacific region is increasingly becoming the center of the global economy, driving world economic growth. However, structural changes in the economy and industry caused by the Global Financial Crisis have slowed regional economies efforts to resolve adverse issues hindering quality
growth.

     Economies in the region have been seeking feasible policy measures to promote inclusive growth. This means economic growth that promotes opportunities equally throughout society and distributes the benefits of increased prosperity in monetary and non-monetary terms more equitably.

     Inclusive growth should develop in concert with overall economic growth so that the two can benefit from a synergistic effect. If the two diverge, there is a risk that only a select few ends up enjoying the benefits of faster growth resulting in undesirable outcomes including increased social tensions undermining the consensus for solid growth strategies.

FinTech Goes Green, Unlocking the Power of Renewable Energy

Steve Huang & Julia Yang

     Current energy system, the electric grid, relied almost exclusively on a massive centralized infrastructure, with large power plants and long-distance transmission lines distribute energy to your house. Nowadays, with more and more renewable energy installations, distributed energy has become an unstoppable trend. More and more customers can easily install PV on their rooftop, and to buy and sell excess energy resources, communities can sell their excess power to each other. And now they need a new tool to make those transactions. New possibilities for green and finance are meant to change the economic landscape of the power sector.

Summary Report: 2017 APEC Workshop “Linking Education and Start-ups: Youth, Women, and Athletes”

Gary Chen synthesized

    
     The Linking Education and Start-up: Youth, Women, and Athletes, a workshop jointly organized by the Sports Administration, Ministry of Education and the Vietnam Sports Administration, was held in Hanoi on May 13. The workshop was attended by 14 government sports officials, senior sports scholars and experts, athletes, and young entrepreneurs from 8 economies namely: Mr. Sean Wroe, Director of Sakura Finance, Australia; Dr. Mehander Singh, Director of Ministry of Education, Malaysia; Ms. Sharon Wee, Director of Sports Warrior Global, Malaysia; Ms. Peggy Tng, Deputy Director of Singapore Sports Institute, Singapore; Atty. Carlo Abarquez, Executive Director of the Philippine Sports Commission, the Philippines; Mr. Richard Shih, Representative of Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Viet Nam; Ms. Maggie Hsu, Director of Sports Administration; Mr. Cheng Ho, Funder of Choxue; Mr. Jeff Hsu, Founder of Hope Tennis Academy; Mr. Nitikorn Rochanavibhata, Director of Sports Authority of Thailand, Thailand; Dr. Rungchai Chaunchaiyakul, Associate Professor of Mahidol University, Thailand; Mr. Volker Heistermann, Managing Director of Yushan Venture, United States; Ms. Le Thi Hoang Yen, Deputy Director General of Vietnam Sports Administration, Viet Nam; and Dr. Ha Viet Dang, Director of Ho Chi Minh National Sport Training Center, Viet Nam, highlighting the sports and education policies and paradigms focusing on education for female athletes and youth entrepreneurship.

The ASEAN Economic Cooperation (AEC) and its New Opportunities

                                                                                                             Jack Huang

     AEC, also known as ASEAN Economic Cooperation, was adopted to enhance trade development, economic growth and the concept of free market within the region. By integrating into a more closely community, it is believed that the stability and fundamental prosperity can be achieved in the future years. Indeed, according to the ASEAN Vision 2020^[1], ASEAN nations would like have comprehensively free movement of goods, services, investment, skilled labour and capital by 2020. By doing so, the 600 millions population and 4.5 millions square kilometers area will be considered as a single market with increasing supply and demand. Thus, it is essential to understand both opportunities and challenges in this regional partnership^[2].

Promoting New South Bound Policy through APEC

                                                                                                              Wayne Chen
     September 5, 2016, the New Southbound Policy (NSP) was officially launched by the Taiwanese government to strengthen ties with countries in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and the South Pacific through promoting cooperation across fields including agriculture, business, culture, education,new energy and technology. 18 countries were centered in NSP as potential strategic partners, namely the 10 Association of Southeast Asian Nations member states, 6 nations in South Asia, Australia and New Zealand. The proposal of NSP reflects not only the fear of the increasing marginalization of Taiwan in regional economic integration of Asia-Pacific, but a profound diplomatic strategy of the newly elected administration in response to a more challenging cross-strait relations. Considering the objectives, proposed actions and desired outcomes of NSP, I argue that APECcan be a very useful platform where Taiwan has been actively participatingsince 1991 for achieving NSP.