APEC CEO Summit

Dmitry Medvedev took part in the APEC CEO Summit, the plenary session of the APEC Business Advisory Council, APEC Leaders and APEC Business Advisory Council Dialogue, and a meeting of APEC leaders with Pacific Island nation leaders.

Dmitry Medvedev’s remarks:

Mr Chairman of the APEC CEO Summit Isikeli Taureka,

Colleagues, ladies and gentlemen,

First of all, I would like to express our gratitude to our partners from Papua New Guinea for their hospitality and good organisation of the APEC CEO Summit, an authoritative forum that provides an opportunity for direct communication with leading business representatives in the Asia-Pacific region. This kind of dialogue is highly relevant at the moment, perhaps more than ever, given the complex and sometimes unpredictable situation that has developed in the global economy.

On the one hand, the global economy has generally recovered from the 2008 crisis. Many system-wide errors that had led to the crisis were exposed then and subsequently corrected. These changes affected the financial markets and public debt management. We all worked on it, including Russia. Large banks have revised their high-risk asset policies.

But on the other hand, the revival of the economy is still slow and unstable. Unfortunately, the global situation looks worse than it did 10 years ago in a number of aspects. Total world debt has increased significantly. Emerging markets have become more vulnerable – this is absolutely certain. The monetary policies have become tighter. The vast majority of countries have not yet reached their target GDP growth rate. In some countries, protectionist sentiments are growing, manifested not only in theoretical arguments, but also in practical decisions. This can lead – has already led, in fact – to trade wars.

More will be posted soon…