APEC Growth Agenda Centers AI and Supply Chains

China’s Finance Minister Lan Foan called for closer coordination on artificial intelligence, supply chains and economic policy at the APEC Finance Ministers’ meeting in Hong Kong on Tuesday. Lan said the forum carries greater responsibility as the world economy faces challenges and rapid change.

Growth and Coordination

“APEC, as an engine of global economic growth, shoulders greater responsibility,” Lan said in his opening remarks. He urged members to work more closely together to boost growth amid rapid global change and the fallout from geopolitical conflicts. The 21-member Pacific Rim grouping includes the United States, Japan and Russia.

On the meeting’s first day, China called for closer coordination on macroeconomic policies, faster transformation, cooperation on AI, greater openness and more resilient supply chains. Lan said the need for cooperation had grown clearer amid intertwined challenges to global growth and an accelerating new industrial transformation, exemplified by AI.

Lan also urged governments to cooperate on AI, the digital economy and green-sector development. He said those efforts would create new sources of growth. The remarks put technology, economic policy and supply chains on the same agenda for member economies, but the article didn’t identify particular companies, workers, unions or industries that would gain or bear costs from the proposals.

Policy and Its Limits

“Given the profound uncertainty in the current international environment, we should enhance the robustness of our own policies while strengthening communication and coordination to prevent negative spillovers resulting from policy adjustments,” Lan said. He called on governments to coordinate and manage the effects of policy changes, though he didn’t specify which policies members should change or how coordination would work.

China, the world’s second-largest economy, would continue comprehensive economic reforms, Lan said. He didn’t elaborate. The article offered no details on the reforms’ scope, beneficiaries, effects on workers or impact on the distribution of economic gains. It also didn’t describe a proposal for wages, employment, labor rights or organized worker participation.

The Hong Kong meeting comes before the APEC leaders’ summit scheduled for Shenzhen on November 18 and 19. The account didn’t report any labor groups, movements or strikes taking part in the finance ministers’ meeting, and it didn’t identify profit figures or corporate beneficiaries connected to the agenda. The proposals reported covered government coordination on economic policy, AI, the digital economy, green-sector development, openness and supply-chain resilience.