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s the host of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit this year, Indonesia has picked regional connectivity as an agenda priority. The Jakarta Post'€™s Linda Yulisman talked to the executive director of the APEC Secretariat Alan Bollard, about issues pertaining to the theme and other issues at a recent APEC trade ministers'€™ meeting in Surabaya. Here are the excerpts of the interview:

Question: Regional connectivity is the top agenda item picked by Indonesia as the theme for the APEC Summit this year. In your view, what are the crucial issues pertaining to connectivity that APEC members should address?

Answer: For physical connectivity, I think it'€™s fair to say that we'€™re trying to learn from the ASEAN master plan. The prime results in APEC projects and guidelines represent good practice and illustrations of that sort of work, but there'€™s more of a focus on how to put projects together, how you form the property rights, how you make it bankable, how you have the conversations between public and private sectors to get funds.

Generally, quite a lot of funds originated out of Asia and traditionally were mediated through the US and European financial system. Now the European system is being pulled out of this region and this is definitely seen by more local and regional financial institutions as a big opportunity. So that'€™s what'€™s going on. But funding infrastructure projects is difficult because they'€™re long term and they have risks '€“ not just construction but also preparatory risks. And so, some economies like Australia and Canada have been sharing their experiences, like in public-private partnerships. Some are successful experiences and some are unsuccessful. So, there'€™s a lot of focus on that.

Institutional connectivity is a more general thing, especially given the big picture, where you'€™ve got Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), you'€™ve got a lot of bilateral and regional trade agreements. I don'€™t think anybody sees TPP or RCEP going in a different direction, so it'€™s important to use APEC as an integrator to help connect, not diverge.

Then you'€™ve got people to people [connectivity]. This ministerial meeting is an example of people to people and we'€™re seeing more and more movements in terms of education, tourism, business and all of that. APEC has been trying to facilitate trade, for example APEC business travel cards, which are very popular and very useful.

In what ways will the APEC connectivity framework differ from that of ASEAN?

It has more experience because APEC, with its developed economies, has tried these things in the past. Some of them have worked, some haven'€™t. There'€™s a wide range of activities. We'€™ve had some experiences from the Pacific Alliance: Mexico, Chile, Peru and some of them are similar. But some are different from ASEAN in the way that they'€™re a bit more focused on traditional infrastructure, and because with the APEC region there'€™s also economies with big financial institutions.

We'€™ve also been able to use APEC business, which has been very active in terms of developing guidelines for bankable projects. They'€™re also looking to set up an Asia Pacific financial forum that will help identify gaps and financial markets in East Asia.

How do you assess the progress of trade facilitation talks in APEC as preparation for the ministerial conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO)?

Well, as you know, APEC has done a lot of work on trade facilitation and I suppose it evolved naturally from the early days. The Bogor goals developed a real focus on reducing border barriers in tariffs and non-tariffs. However, other things have started to look more important, things within borders that make trade and visiting across borders harder than they need to be. And that'€™s where APEC has done a lot of work at a very practical level with all the working groups and all the projects have gone on over the years. Ministers and leaders have made it clear that they have to continue the very big focus on regional economic integration and trade growth as a way to help this region stay as the engine of growth.

Some of the practical things on the ground have been very impressive. Some of them relate to procedures across borders, developing harmonized arrangements, common standards, the use of electronic commerce where it hasn'€™t been possible before, international data standards, tracking products from their origins '€” a lot of those things now look like having a very significant impact. In addition, things like how to make it easier for businesses to start up, how to make it easy to get funding for businesses '€” I think these things offer the WTO some very interesting material illustration when it comes to making businesses more efficient.

What are the crucial issues that Indonesia should address to improve its own connectivity?

Well, I think for Indonesia one specific issue is hard infrastructure, and once it gets its public sector to grow, it will outstrip its existing infrastructure very quickly. Some of that will take a long time to build, but will also create big opportunities because you would be building infrastructure for the generation. So I think here, it'€™s more about physical infrastructure.