Pan-Pacific Conference XXXIV. Designing New Business Models in Developing Economies

Cooperation between Latin America and asia-pacific in the context of APEC:
opportunities and challenges
Hopkins Larrea, Raul
CENTRUM, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Peru
Jr. Daniel Alomía Robles 125-129, Los Alamos de Monterrico, Lima 33,
raul.hopkins@gmail.com. Tel: (51) 936 055 943
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this paper is to examine the potential
for regional cooperation between Latin America and
Asia with special reference to the role of APEC. It
is divided in three sections. The first one examines
the importance of APEC in the context of the world
economy and the role of Latin America within this
organization. The second looks at the depth of the
economic interactions between these two regions
and their recent performance. Special attention is
given to comparing the regulatory environment
using the results of the Doing Business 2017. The
third section examines the current challenges and
opportunities.
I. LATIN AMERICA IN APEC
APEC continues to be one of the most important
regional forums, accounting roughly to 60 percent
of the world´s GDP, 50 percent of international
trade and 40 percent of the world’s population. Al
highlighted by Harinder Kohli, president and CEO
of the Centennial Group Latin America, “If one
looks at the long-term fundamentals of the global
economy, APEC remains as important to Latin
America today, if not more so, than when APEC
was first formed. Asia has been, and is expected to
remain the fastest-growing region of the world. It
already boasts three of the four largest economies of
the world in purchasing parity (PPP) terms” [3].
Table 1 shows some of the main characteristics of
APEC member countries. On the one hand, the
difference in terms of the size of the countries is
striking. The three largest countries (China, the
United States and Russia) represent two-thirds of
the Gross Domestic Product of the total
membership. The participation of Latin America
(Mexico, Chile and Peru) is quantitatively small:
about 5% of GDP.
In connection with the regulatory environment,
measured by the Doing Business 2017, prepared by
the World Bank [6], the diversity of situations is
significant. At the same time, it is important to note
that nearly half of APEC members (9 out of 21
members) are among the top 25. The level of percapita
income is also high, averaging USD 21 634.
This paper expands the analysis of a previous piece
of research [2] devoted to examine the role of the
Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Unfortunately this
analysis is no longer valid, due to the recent changes
in the US foreign policy.
Country
Table 1: APEC KEY ECONOMIC INDICATORS 2015
Date of
accession
GDP (PPP)
million
current USD
160
GDP
Percapita
PPP current
GDP
Growth
Rate (%
Annual)
Doing
Business
2017
ranking
Australia 1989 1 082 380 45 514 2.3 15
Brunei 1989 29 969 70 817 -0.5 72
Canada 1989 1 5 88 596 44 310 1.1 22
Indonesia 1989 2 842 241 11 035 4.8 91
Japan 1989 4 738 294 37 322 0.5 34
South Korea 1989 1 748 776 34 549 2.6 5
Malaysia 1989 815 645 26 891 5.0 23
New Zealand 1989 169 960 36 982 3.4 1
Phillipines 1989 741 029 7 359 5.8 99
Singapore 1989 471 630 85 209 2.0 2
Thailand 1989 1 108 108 16 306 2.8 46
United States 1989 17 946 996 55 837 2.4 8
Taiwan 1991 1 099 030 46 783 0.7 11
Hong Kong 1991 414 376 56 720 2.4 4
China 1991 19 524 349 14 239 6.9 78
Mexico 1993 2 194 431 17 277 2.5 47
Papau N Guinea 1993 21 385 2 865 8.5 119
Chile 1994 400 534 22 316 2.1 57
Peru 1998 389 147 12 402 3.3 54
Russia 1998 3 579 826 24 451 -3.7 40
Vietnam 1998 552 297 6 023 6.7 82