Why APEC Needs India
In an essay published by the Huffington Post India and the Straits Times, Asia Society Policy Institute President Kevin Rudd and Hero MotoCorp Joint Managing Director Sunil Kant Munjal make the case for India’s accession to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC).
On November 18, twenty-one world leaders gathered in Manila, Philippines for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders Meeting. They had much to celebrate. APEC’s work over twenty-five years has done a great deal to knit the region’s economies together and promote growth. But as the leaders looked around the conference table, they didn’t see colleagues from a country that is vital to APEC’s future: India.
Without the region’s third largest and now fastest growing major economy, APEC economies will struggle to capitalize on one of the most promising markets and growth drivers in the wider Asia-Pacific. APEC would not only remain incomplete but also unable to reinvent itself once the recently completed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement becomes a reality.
APEC economies, which account for 60 percent of global GDP, are experiencing sluggish growth and must look for opportunities to bring new markets and sources of growth into the region. Adding India to APEC would augment regional trade and investment by deepening India’s integration with the region and create for the first time a truly Asia-Pacific-wide economic landscape.