Member economies of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum have agreed to take concrete measures to realize Japan's proposal to help developing member economies and relaunch global trade talks, APEC sources said here Saturday.
Senior officials from APEC's 21 member economies have expressed unanimous support for Japan's proposal for capacity building to help developing economies implement their World Trade Organization (WTO) agreements at the two-day meeting in Brunei.
Japan has estimated that between $40 million and $50 million will be needed to fund the projects, to come mainly from Japan, other developed member economies and possibly the World Bank, the sources said.
Individual support projects for capacity building will be tailor-made to suit the needs of the developing economies. The program includes measures to boost the infrastructure of developing economies in areas critical for trade, such as customs.