The Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Business Advisory Council (ABAC) is the private sector arm of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), providing advice and feedback to APEC Leaders on policies that affect the business community.

The Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) was formed in 1989 to further enhance economic growth and prosperity for the region and to strengthen the Asia-Pacific community.

APEC leaders hope to achieve the Bogor Goals, adopted in 1994 to:

"Achieve free and open trade and investment in the Asia-Pacific by 2010 for industrialised economies and 2020 for developing economies"

APEC consists of 21 member economies: Australia; Brunei Darussalam; Canada; Chile; People's Republic of China; Hong Kong, China; Indonesia; Japan; Republic of Korea; Malaysia; Mexico; New Zealand; Papua New Guinea; Peru; The Republic of the Philippines; The Russian Federation; Singapore; Chinese Taipei; Thailand; United States of America and Vietnam.

APEC Facts (as of 2008)

The Asia-Pacific region contains 41% of the world’s population

APEC accounts for approximately 55% of world GDP

APEC accounts for about 49% of world trade

APEC Structure

The APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) was created by the APEC Economic Leaders in November 1995 with the aim of:

Providing advice to the APEC Economic Leaders on ways to achieve the Bogor Goals and other specific business sector priorities, and to provide the business perspective on specific areas of cooperation.

Each economy nominates up to three members from the private sector to ABAC. These business leaders represent a wide range of industry sectors. Singapore's interests are represented by Mr. Teng Theng Dar, Ms. Chong Siak Ching and Mr. Tang Kin Fei.

The Chair of ABAC comes from the APEC Member Economy that is hosting APEC and changes annually. ABAC provides an annual report to APEC Economic Leaders containing recommendations to improve the business and investment environment in the APEC region, and outlining business views about priority regional issues.

The ABAC International Secretariat is based in Manila, Philippines. The ABAC Singapore Secretariat is housed under the Singapore Business Federation.

For more information on APEC and ABAC, please visit the respective websites:
APEC Secretariat	ABAC Secretariat