VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Feb. 10 - Business leaders from 21 Asia-Pacific economies, at this week’s virtual meeting, discussed ways to unitedly tackle COVID-19 and rebuild the region’s economies, according to the APEC Business Advisory Council’s release issued and received here, Wednesday.

"We are living through the crisis of a century, and strength comes from our determination to work together," Chair of the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) Rachel Taulelei stated.

"Overcoming the current adversity, whether it is by restoring public health, reopening borders, securing economic recovery, or achieving more equitable communities, demands constructive, creative, and above all, collaborative approaches," Taulelei noted.

The ABAC chair further emphasized that the need for such coordinated thinking has been brought home very vividly by the spectre of vaccine export restrictions.

"It remains true, as it has been since the start of this crisis, that we all remain vulnerable if any of us remains vulnerable," Taulelei cautioned.

Taulelei made the remarks after the first ABAC meeting of 2021 that was opened with an address from Prime Minister of New Zealand Jacinda Ardern.

“The focus this year at ABAC is on people, place, and prosperity -- the three elements that are all essential to creating the kind of societies we want to live in," she explained.

"Inclusion for all people is our North Star – so we will be working on how to ensure access for all to COVID vaccinations, essential goods and food supplies; how small businesses can operate on a level playing field; and how to empower women and indigenous populations for success," she stated.

Taulelei emphasized that to achieve a prosperous region, especially after the body-blows of 2020, demands that the most fundamental of APEC goals are free and open markets.

"That means building a seamless Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific and championing the World Trade Organization, including initiatives to keep supply chains functioning and trade flowing as well as the reopening of borders and resumption of travel that will revive the region’s economic growth," she affirmed.

According to Taulelei, the requisite efforts to encourage economic recovery should be supported by the practice of digital economy.

"Digital tools are fundamental to resilience, sustainability, and inclusion. Emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence, can unleash even greater opportunities – but we need a trusted, interoperable enabling environment to realize that potential," she reiterated.

Taulelei also noted that the APEC Putrajaya Vision, agreed by APEC Leaders late last year, provided an imperative to act.

"The vision calls for an open, dynamic, resilient, and peaceful Asia-Pacific community by 2040. The road to get there will not be easy, but the business of business is solving problems – and ABAC is ready and eager for the challenge," Taulelei concluded.  (Antaranews)

Feb. 10 - The United Nations Refugee Agency has held initial talks with U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration about Central American asylum claimants being processed in their own countries, but it is too early to estimate how many people could benefit from the policy, agency head Filippo Grandi said on Tuesday.

The Biden administration has already said it plans to restore a program which allows certain children in Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador to apply for refugee status in the United States from home.

“This is a complex situation,” Grandi, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, told Reuters in an interview as he wrapped up a visit to Colombia. “It’s very early days to come to conclusions or make comments because the work is in progress.”

Investment in migrants’ home countries will be key to strengthening economies and security and diminishing incentives to leave, he said.

“We need to also... work very much with Mexico to strengthen its own capacity to deal with the movement (of migrants),” Grandi said.

Thousands of Central Americans have attempted to travel north in recent months following back-to-back hurricanes in November which displaced more than 500,000 people, according to data from the International Organization for Migration.

Biden’s government has suspended 2019 agreements with Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador which sought to force asylum seekers to first seek refuge in those countries if they passed through them, before applying in the United States.

Grandi’s Colombia visit was crowned by a Monday announcement that the country will allow Venezuelan migrants to seek temporary protective status for a 10-year period.

The new rules allow Venezuelans already in the country and those who arrive during the first two years of the scheme to apply for the status.

The U.N. will up its efforts to help Colombia prepare for potential increases of Venezuelan immigrants, Grandi said.

“We are certainly stepping up our operation,” Grandi said. “It’s a variety of interventions that we’re doing, but we’re also helping the government at the legal and institutional level to strengthen this preparation.”

Colombia’s migration agency estimated on Tuesday that as many as 2.5 million Venezuelans could benefit from temporary protection, including some 770,000 it projects may arrive over the next two years.

Of the more than 1.7 million Venezuelan immigrants currently in Colombia, over 50% lack legal status. Colombia has been the top destination for people fleeing economic and social collapse in neighboring Venezuela. (Reuters)