| APEC Philippines 2015 | |
|---|---|
 | |
 APEC Philippines 2015 delegates attired inbarong tagalog | |
| Host country | Philippines |
| Date | 18—19 November |
| Motto | "Building Inclusive Economies, Building a Better World" |
| Venues | Main venue Philippine International Convention Center,Pasay Other meetings |
| Follows | 2014 |
| Precedes | 2016 |
| Website | apec2015 |
APEC Philippines 2015 was the year-long hosting of theAsia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meetings which concluded with the APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting held on 18–19 November 2015 inPasay,Metro Manila.[1] It was the second time the Philippines hosted the summit, the first being in 1996.[2]
The meetings were held amid simmering tensions betweenChina and several nations, including thePhilippines,Japan,Vietnam andMalaysia because of the former's aggressive policy of claiming several uninhabitedislands in the South China Sea.[3] However, the Philippines decided to put aside the issue temporarily in keeping with its hosting duties.[3] The summit was also held just days after theNovember 2015 Paris attacks which left 137 people dead, forcing the host country to enforce a lockdown of major streets near summit venues and hotels where the economic leaders were billeted, causing heavytraffic in major Metro Manila roads and inconvenience to commuters and motorists.[4][5]
The agenda of the Philippines' hosting of APEC 2015 is exemplified through its theme which focuses on promoting and advancinginclusive growth in theAsia-Pacific region. This goal on promoting inclusive growth is divided into three stages: domestic/national, regional, and macro levels. There are also four priority set for APEC 2015:[6]
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The official APEC 2015 logo and theme,"Building Inclusive Economies, Building a Better World", were unveiled during the event, as well as its officialFacebook[7] andTwitter[8] accounts.
The logo design was donated by INKSURGE Design Studio. The circle in the logo represents aglobal community which is described as more connected, more integrated and more dynamic, and where each APEC member-economies, bothadvanced andemerging contribute to shared development. The design also depicts the 21 APEC member-economies as blue, red and yellow triangles connected bycommon waters.[9]
Thesustained and sharedeconomic growth of the member-economies are represented through an arrow pointed upward at the center of the globe, an image formed by the 21 triangles. The light blue shade of the arrow symbolized the promising development of a member-economy resulting from positive interaction with partners and compliance to soundmacroeconomic fundamentals. The triangle itself symbolizes balance which leads to a strong and stable economy.[9]
The three colors of the triangles represents the APEC's Pillars of Progress or the Bogor Goals: 1) Trade and investment liberalization; 2) Business facilitation throughcost reduction andefficiency of business transactions, and; 3) Economic and technical cooperation among APEC member-economies. These goals were first outlined and described during the 1994 APEC summit inIndonesia.[9]
Preparations for APEC 2015 began with the signing of Administrative Order No. 36, s. 2012,[10] which constituted the APEC 2015 National Organizing Council. On 1 December 2014,President Benigno Aquino III led the APEC 2015 national launch at a dinner inMakati.[11] The Philippine government allocated approximately 10 billionpesos for the hosting of the APEC meetings.[12]
As part of the security measures for the APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting, the government declared 17–20 November as school holidays and 18–19 November as special non-working days inMetro Manila.[13][14][15] Manila has also banned most activities in and aroundRoxas Boulevard andManila Bay, such as fishing,sailing,swimming, and walking.[16]
TheArmed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and thePhilippine National Police (PNP) were placed from blue alert to red alert status on 14 November in preparation for the five-day event. The raising of alert status was done ahead of schedule due to a procedure by the police following any international terrorist incident, such as theattacks in Paris which occurred a day earlier. Nevertheless, the PNP assured the public that the alert status is due routine procedure and it has not monitored any specific threat.[17] The AFP deployed itsland,air, andnaval assets at several undisclosed positions withinMetro Manila.[18]
As part of the APEC tradition, custom-madebarong tagalog clothing were designed by fashion designer Paul Cabral for the economic leaders to wear during the "family-photo" portion of the event to showcasePhilippine fashion and talent.[19] Meanwhile, Filipino industrial designerKenneth Cobonpue was hired as the APEC creative director and was put in charge of decorating the interior of theMall of Asia Arena in preparation for the APEC Economic Leaders' Welcome Dinner on 18 November 2015. His venue design took inspiration from theBanaue Rice Terraces, aWorld Heritage Site.[20]
Makati inMetro Manila hosted the first APEC 2015 meeting, the Informal Senior Officials' Meeting (ISOM), from 8 to 9 December 2014. Originally slated to be held inLegazpi,Albay, the meeting was transferred to Makati as storm signals were raised in the former due toTyphoon Hagupit, locally known as Typhoon Ruby.[21]
The First Senior Officials' Meeting and Related Meetings were held inClark Freeport, Angeles, Pampanga andSubic Bay, Zambales, from 26 January to 7 February 2015.[22]
The island ofBoracay inAklan hosted the Second Senior Officials' Meeting (SOM2) and Related Meetings from 9–21 May 2015[23] and the APEC Ministers Responsible for Trade (MRT) Meeting from 23 to 24 May.[24]
The Third Senior Officials' Meeting (SOM3) and Related Meetings were held inCebu City from 22 August to 6 September, followed by the APEC Finance Ministers' Meeting from 10 to 11 September. Other ministerial meetings and events were held in various locations in the Philippines, such asIloilo City for the Small and Medium Enterprise ministerial meeting on 21–25 September, the Senior Disaster Management Officials Forum on 22–23 September, and the High-Level Policy Dialogue on Food Security and the Blue Economy and Related Meetings from 28 September to 6 October 2015 also inIloilo City.[25]
The APEC CEO Summit was held on 16–18 November at theMakati Shangri-La Hotel.[26] The theme of summit was "Creating the Future: Better, Stronger, Together".[27]
The highlight of the series of meetings, the Economic Leaders' Meeting, was held at thePhilippine International Convention Center inPasay, Metro Manila on 18–19 November.[28] On the evening of 18 November, President Aquino hosted a welcome dinner for the visiting economic leaders at theMall of Asia Arena.[29]
Colombian PresidentJuan Manuel Santos represented his country in anobserver status in the Economic Leaders' Meeting.[30]
A week prior to the Economic Leaders' Meeting,Russian PresidentVladimir Putin andIndonesian PresidentJoko Widodo, both of whom had initially announced their attendance, decided not to attend in the occasion citing their attendance to address their own domestic issues, particularly theongoing investigation of theMetrojet Flight 9268 crash and the2015 Southeast Asian haze, respectively.[31] Putin was represented by former Russian President, nowPrime MinisterDmitry Medvedev who was also scheduled to visit other Southeast Asian countries. Widodo was represented by his trade minister Thomas Lembong andVice PresidentJusuf Kalla.[32][33]
This was the first APEC meeting forAustralian Prime MinisterMalcolm Turnbull andCanadian Prime MinisterJustin Trudeau since their inaugurations on 15 September 2015 and 4 November 2015, respectively.[34][35]
It was also the last APEC meeting for the host,Philippine PresidentBenigno Aquino III (who stepped down on 30 June 2016, following the2016 Philippine presidential election and theinauguration of Rodrigo Duterte), as well asVietnamese PresidentTrương Tấn Sang (who stepped down on 2 April 2016),Peruvian PresidentOllanta Humala (who stepped down on 28 July 2016, following the2016 Peruvian election), andSouth Korean PresidentPark Geun-hye (who was ousted on 10 March 2017, following herimpeachment in the2016 South Korean political scandal).
The declaration was sealed by the APEC economic leaders on 19 November 2015. Among the five main points of the declaration were related to fightingterrorism,poverty andclimate change, continuouseconomic growth, and the global economic outlook.[36]
Aside from the Economic Leaders' Meeting itself, some leaders met with each other in separate bilateral meetings within the week of the leaders' meet.
Chilean PresidentMichelle Bachelet andMexican PresidentEnrique Peña Nieto were hostedstate visits by Aquino atMalacañang Palace on 16 and 17 November, respectively, prior to the meeting.[37]
Aquino met withU.S. PresidentBarack Obama on 18 November. During their meeting, Obama reassured the United States' commitment to assisting the Philippines in resolving theterritorial disputes in theSouth China Sea through joint exercises between the AFP and theUnited States Armed Forces, known asBalikatan ("shoulder-to-shoulder").[38] Prior to the meeting, Obama met with thePhilippine Navy and visited theBRPGregorio del Pilar (PF-15), where he announced that theU.S. government would donate theresearch vesselRVMelville and twoHamilton-class cutters to the Philippine Navy, one of which will be theUSCGCBoutwell (WHEC-719).[39][40][41] Aquino also met with Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev later that day.[42]
Japanese Prime MinisterShinzō Abe and Obama held a bilateral meeting on 19 November and talked about issues on the reallocation ofU.S. Marines from theUS base in Okinawa toGuam and the plannedTrans-Pacific Partnership.[43]
Commuters and motorists took on social networking sites on the heavy traffic situation caused by the road closures and rerouting schemes in different Metro Manila roads in anticipation to the APEC meeting.[4][5] Palace spokespersonEdwin Lacierda apologized for the inconvenience brought about by the heavy traffic in Manila roads and asking the public for patience on the road advisories being implemented.[44]
Human Rights Watch has reported that the government's preparation for the Economic Leaders' Meeting extended to thehomeless andimpoverished people, includingstreet children andvendors, who were either detained or relocated to other parts ofMetro Manila.[45] The government denied such allegations of abuse and said that the actions were not only done for the APEC summit and such are part of its regular outreach program.[46]
During the APEC Economic Leaders' Summit on 18–19 November, theBagong Alyansang Makabayan conducted protests alongGil Puyat Avenue,Pasay, againstChina's aggressive policy of claimingislands in the South China Sea, against theUnited States regarding what they describe asUS imperialism because of thePhilippines–United States Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) andEnhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA), as well asAPEC itself,globalization, andpoverty in the Philippines.[47][48] Meanwhile, tribal leaders and members from variousLumad tribes inMindanao also gathered at theRedemptorist Church grounds inBaclaran,Pasay, to protest what they describe as APEC's promotion of militarization and encroachment of indigenous communities in favor of resource extraction by transnational mining companies.[49][50][51]
On 18 November, members of thePeople for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) staged their own protest action inMakati while dressed as animal mascots. PETA called on APEC economic leaders to promote toclimate change awareness and conversion tovegan life for thewelfare of the animals.[52][53]
| Preceded by | APEC meetings 2015 | Succeeded by |
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