On Monday, September 21, the Undersecretariat of International Economic Relations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SUBREI) held the panel discussion "The Relevance of APEC in the Asia-Pacific and Chile's Role," to which the Chile Pacific Foundation was invited to participate as a panelist.
The event, held before a large audience in the O'Higgins Hall of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, featured remarks by Undersecretary Paula Estévez, who framed the importance of APEC in light of the country's trade priorities, and by the Ambassador of the People's Republic of China to Chile, Niu Qingbao, who highlighted, among other topics, key aspects of the current APEC year under China's chairmanship.
During the panel, Luis Alberto Pino Gumucio, Head of Programs and Content at the Foundation, outlined the core functions and objectives of the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC), for which the Foundation serves as National Secretariat in Chile. Among other points, he noted that ABAC has established itself as a space of excellence for deepening and making the most of public-private cooperation. This is a model, he added, in which Chile has long-standing experience, particularly in international trade policy, that is further strengthened in a forum such as APEC and that the country can share with other member economies.
The panel was moderated by Krasna Bobenrieth, Head of the APEC Division at SUBREI and Chile's Alternate Senior Official to APEC. The other panelists were Felipe Henríquez Palma, Chile's APEC Senior Official (SOM) and Director General of Multilateral Affairs at SUBREI, who discussed the dynamics of government participation in the forum; Juan Enrique Serrano Moreno, professor at the Institute of International Studies of the University of Chile, who spoke about the emerging coordination among Chile and other economies to strengthen the role of the APEC Study Centers Consortium (ASCC) and about academia's broader contribution to the forum; and Paz Ortúzar, Business Mobility Group (BMG) focal point and head of the APEC Business Travel Card at Chile's National Migration Service, who explained the benefits of this travel document and the requirements to obtain it.
The seminar also included a presentation by Nelson Paredes, Director of Studies at SUBREI, who quantified the importance of the APEC region for Chile's foreign trade and discussed opportunities to expand the country's participation in the cooperation forum.
In her closing remarks, Krasna Bobenrieth emphasized the cross-cutting collaboration opportunities that APEC offers and underscored its growing importance, especially looking ahead to 2032, when Chile will host the forum for the third time.
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