Benefits to Region
This project seeks to address roadblocks that prevent APEC economies from fully leveraging existing emerging technologies to reduce trade disruptions and strengthen regulatory alignment. As the global economy becomes more digital, trade processes should keep up with the transition to prevent lags, delays, or misalignment and to improve access to information. This project aims to expand APEC economies’ digital toolkit by providing new and illuminating methods to convert documents such as technical regulations, standards, or testing and conformity assessment-related documents from paper to digital and improve government-to-government system connectivity within economies. This workstream will build on existing APEC priorities of promoting the digital economy through innovation and digitalization.
Eligibility and Fund Priorities
This project is within the scope of the Digital Innovation Sub-fund, specifically the Internet and Digital Economy Roadmap, as it contributes to the following priority area of “supporting inclusive, integrated and sustainable growth [through] ongoing support for APEC economies to improve the growth of the digital economy in the Asia-Pacific region.” In further alignment with the Digital Innovation Sub-fund, this project focuses on promoting innovation and the adoption of enabling technologies and services to facilitate the free flow of information and data in addition to the development of new digital processes that increase interoperability, connectivity, and international regulatory cooperation.
Capacity Building
This project is in line with APEC’s goals for capacity building across economies and innovation-focused perspective by recognizing the varying levels of development, access to technology, and regulatory advancement among APEC economies. This project supports capacity-building needs for APEC economies by exchanging knowledge on several kinds of emerging technologies that would be useful for digitization/digitalization and the transition to a digital economy. By highlighting several technologies, this project acknowledges potential differences in technological advancement among the economies and aims to enhance dialogue and cooperation both between government regulators and the public and private sectors (including SMEs) to ensure the highest level of inclusivity. The project also provides opportunities for economies to share their knowledge, experiences, and existing or planned work on the digital economy and the use of the identified emerging technologies for related processes and international regulatory cooperation. The project is expected to be relevant to both digitally advanced economies, but also developing ones that are interested in increasing their knowledge in the space and actively implementing lessons and use cases learned.
APEC
This work is in line with both the 2021 and 2022 APEC Leaders’ Declarations, which emphasize the role of digital technology and innovation in ensuring access to global
markets and services to better the livelihoods of people and encourage the transition from an informal to a formal economy. Further, the draft 2024 APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting Key Elements Table (KET) of the proposed roadmap on the transition to the formal and global economy identifies possible APEC workstreams under the Aotearoa Plan of Action (APA) Collective Actions specifically around the areas of “digitalizing border processes facilitated by application of internationally recognized standards, strengthening customs cooperation…and promot[ing] cost-effective mechanisms that support cross-border business-to-business engagement, including through electronic transactions…” This project also aligns with broader APEC objectives to support innovation and interconnectedness through the APEC Putrajaya Vision 2040 and the APEC Connectivity Blueprint. The Digital Infrastructure and Transformation objective of the Aotearoa Plan of Action under the Innovation and Digitalization driver of the Putrajaya Vision 2040 is a natural fit for this project due to its focus on accelerating the digital transformation and facilitating the flow of data.
Lastly, this project continues relevant topics discussed at the 26th Conference on GRP hosted by the U.S. under the SCSC in 2023.
Forum
An aspect of the SCSC’s mission is to reduce technical barriers to trade and promote GRPs in the preparation, adoption, and application of standards, technical regulations, and conformity assessment procedures. The SCSC has historically introduced topics of importance surrounding GRP and this project specifically continues previous iterations of workshops focused on emerging technology, including a workshop on greenhouse gas emissions measurement in 2023. Also in 2023, the SCSC adopted the Blueprint for Advancing Good Regulatory Practices in the APEC Region. Items in the Blueprint that are directly relevant to this project include minimizing trade disruptions, ensuring that regulations are published and/or made easily accessible online, acknowledging external conditions such as technological advances, and promoting technical information and knowledge exchange between regulators and interested persons.
Capacity Building Workshop
The one-day, APEC-wide capacity building workshop, scheduled on the margins of the Third APEC Senior Officials’ Meeting (SOM3) , provides a platform for members to exchange knowledge on emerging technologies useful to the transition to a digital economy. The workshop will take place in Lima, Peru. Workshop session topics will include leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) to convert paper documents, such as technical regulations, standards, or testing and conformity assessment-related documents, into a digital format; Securing digital documents and accompanying data in testing and conformity assessment processes and Cloud computing and its applicability for strengthening international regulatory cooperation. The full day agenda will wrap with a closing session to discuss next steps and key elements from the day’s discussions for APEC economies to take forward. By addressing differences in technological advancement, the workshop aims to build capacity and enhance cooperation between government regulators and the public and private sectors (including SMEs). It will provide regulators with tools to streamline digital document creation and manage online document inventories, facilitating information sharing across government systems within economies and supporting the move towards a global digital economy. The workshop will foster international regulatory cooperation and the implementation of best practices across both advanced and developing economies.
The project overseers will ensure that participants and attendees are connected following the workshop, in addition to conducting a follow up survey to measure participants’ application of lessons learned. The workshop survey will be conducted immediately following the workshop to capture feedback from participants.
Participants will be encouraged to share experiences, seek assistance, and collaborate with peers to sustain momentum and reinforce workshop learnings, fostering a supportive environment conducive to continuous improvement and long- term success.
Workshop Summary Report
The 3-5 page workshop summary report submitted to the Secretariat would provide a comprehensive overview of the discussions, presentations, and findings of the one-day, APEC-wide capacity building workshop. It would begin with an executive summary highlighting the key points discussed and the main conclusions drawn during the workshop.
The report would then provide a detailed account of the topics covered and may include appendices with supplementary materials such as presentation slides, workshop agendas, and participant lists. Overall, the workshop summary report would serve as a valuable resource for participants, policymakers, and stakeholders interested in advancing digital initiatives within the APEC region and beyond. This report will not be an APEC publication.
