NZPECC AND THE PACIFIC ECONOMIC COOPERATION COUNCIL (PECC)

The Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (PECC) is an independent regional body, focused on enhancing economic cooperation and policy coordination in the Asia Pacific to promote trade and regional economic growth and development.

The New Zealand Committee of the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (NZPECC) is a founding and active member of the PECC community.

ABOUT NZPECC

NZPECC works to support strong business and institutional links into the Asia Pacific market and to deliverbenefits for all New Zealanders. Our focus is on

Promoting freer trade and investment and market strengthening structural reform

Enhancing economic cooperation and coordination to reducing regulatory and administrative transaction costs, including in the digital  economy

Supporting social cooperation across the region.

NZPECC has led some substantial PECC work including the development of the PECC Competition Principles (  link ) and  the development, last year, of a Digital Primer ( link ).  In addition to focusing on the broader PECC work programme on closer economic integration and structural reform, NZPECC is currently focused on developing an deeper understanding of the implication of intellectual property (IP) for the digital economy and producing an the Intellectual Property Primer.

ABOUT PECC

PECC was formed in 1980 and now has 26 Member Committees*. Participants in PECC include representatives from business and industry, academia and civil society as well as government officials. As a non-governmental organisation PECC’s value lies in its ability to identify and analyse issues in an unconstrained way. In addition to traditional trade issues it is focused on emerging issues including sustainability and the implications of the rapidly growing digital economy.

Each PECC Member Committee brings together business, academic, civil society representatives and officials in an informal setting to explore current economic and social issues and to support new ideas on how to address the most significant challenges facing its economy and the Asia Pacific region.  It has a key role in analysing and discussing emerging issues in support of APEC’s “pathfinder” role in the Asia-Pacific region.

PECC is a key official observer at APEC.PECC proactively shares its findings and recommendations with APEC member governments as well as with the broader policy and the stakeholder communities. It  provides information and analytical support to APEC ministerial, senior officials and working group meetings. It also facilitates private sector and academic participation in the process.

By facilitating cooperation and engaging in substantive analytical work, PECC is respected by the Asia Pacific community as a valuable regional institution that has helped shape the regional economic agenda. PECC’s annual State of the Region report, which incorporates the views of stakeholders across the region, is widely anticipated by regional members and more broadly in the regional economic community.