Peru to continue inclusive business as a major agenda in 2016 APEC

MANILA - Succeeding host for 2016 Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting, Peru assures the continuity of the Inclusive Business (IB) initiatives as a major agenda for development for cooperation in the region.

Felix Denegri Boza, Peruvian Ambassador to the Philippines, said in an interview on Friday that the gains achieved in APEC 2015 will "not be just for one year but should be sustained because we need to continue to strengthen our baseline economies."

He added that Peru is very committed to developing social inclusiveness in Latin America in as much it is also seeing inclusive business as of the state's initiative.

"We are starting to understand the advantages of supporting IB in the sense that Latin America has the greatest disparity in distribution of wealth," he said.

Denegri noted that Peru had 10 good years of growth averaging more than 6 percent.

Despite widespread poverty, investments in education and infrastructure are still the country's priorities.

"IB is extremely important to build capacity that will influence people to work and gain autonomy. This is something we'd like to pursue as the next APEC host," said Denegri.

The Philippines as APEC 2015 host put forward the concept of inclusive growth as one of the important agenda during the year-long APEC meeting.

"We hope to gain a common understanding and a deeper appreciation of IB, explore its vast opportunities and chart the next steps," said Trade undersecretary Adrian Cristobal Jr.

He added that the Philippines hoped that its efforts would carve a permanent place for Inclusive Business in APEC, and continue when Peru succeeds the Philippines as chair of APEC in 2016.

Inclusive Business is defined as innovative models where companies engage the poor and low-income communities as partners, customers, suppliers and employees in their supply chains not out of charity, but because it makes good business sense.

The integration of these communities into global value chains improves their quality of lives and makes for better business with diversified supply and distribution systems.