Anna Jiwon Park has been covering the politics at The Korea Times since the summer of 2024, when she joined the press pool for the Office of the President in Korea. Prior to that, she spent about five years reporting extensively on financial markets, regulatory authorities and the financial industry. She joined The Korea Times in 2019 after spending eight years as a broadcast journalist at Arirang TV, Korea’s leading global broadcaster, covering politics, defense and culture.
Global shifts prompt APEC to prioritize resilience, data, supply chains
A multimedia show projects “Building a Sustainable Tomorrow,” the agenda of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, onto the night sky above Bomun Lake in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province, Oct. 18. Yonhap
By Anna J. Park
Created to improve market access among member economies, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) has steadily reinvented itself over the past three decades to meet the demands of a changing global landscape. Its mission has evolved from simply opening markets to ensuring they function more effectively, by strengthening supply chains, managing cross-border data flows and building policy resilience.
This transformation has become even more visible as global shocks, from pandemics to climate extremes, reshape trade dynamics. The annual summit event hasn’t abandoned its trade roots, but it has matured into a platform for operational interoperability.
Since its inception in 1989, APEC’s evolution can be understood through four broad phases. In the 1990s to early 2000s, the focus was on trade liberalization, investment facilitation and market integration that sought to make the Asia-Pacific a more open and competitive region for commerce.
The International Media Center is located at the main venue of the APEC Summit 2025 in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province, Tuesday. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul
As the organization evolved through the 2000s and 2010s, attention turned to more systemic reforms, such as improving regulatory environments, strengthening institutional connectivity and laying the groundwork for cooperation in emerging areas such as digital and services trade.
As the region’s economies developed and global shocks continued to mount, from financial crises to the ever-increasing threat of climate change, APEC’s agenda in the 2010s broadened further to reflect these shifts. The forum began emphasizing the participation of small and medium-sized enterprises, women and other underrepresented groups. While trade and investment remained at its core, new dimensions emerged: the digital economy, innovation, resilience, inclusion and sustainability.
With the pandemic and the rapid expansion of digital economies in the 2020s, APEC’s priorities have continued to evolve. The agenda increasingly addresses cross-border data flows, sustainability and climate adaptation. In this latest phase, these strands have converged into an integrated agenda that links trade, digital transformation, sustainability, resilience and inclusion — an approach embodied in APEC’s long-term vision for an open and dynamic Asia-Pacific.
A closer look at the recent themes and agendas of APEC summits clearly illustrates this evolution.
In 2023, at the San Francisco summit, the theme “Creating a Resilient and Sustainable Future for All” captured the forum’s expanding focus. Leaders doubled down on supply-chain security, digital trade, small and medium-sized enterprise participation and climate-aligned growth, culminating in the Golden Gate Declaration.
In 2024, Peru's APEC summit used the theme “Empower. Include. Grow.” to focus on promoting inclusive trade and investment; advancing innovation and digitalization to bring more workers and firms into the global economy; and fostering sustainable growth for greater resilience. Peru also revived structured work toward a Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific, a long-term vision for deeper regional integration.
This year, Korea’s 2025 APEC summit in Gyeongju, themed around “Building a Sustainable Tomorrow,” continues that trajectory. The agenda addresses three pillars — Connect, Innovate, Prosper — which extend the resilience and inclusion priorities that have shaped APEC since 2020.
In essence, the Gyeongju summit embodies APEC’s evolution from a body devoted to market access into one focused on market functionality. Trade and investment remain at its foundation, but the framing has expanded to meet the 21st-century realities of digital transformation, climate adaptation, inclusive growth and more.