GBM-23

65th Session of the APO Governing Body

24–26 May 2023, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

GUIDELINES ON THE THEME OF POLICY DIRECTIVES BY APO DIRECTORS

Topic: Emerging Needs for Productivity Enhancement

Consistent with the APO Vision 2025 of facilitating initiatives for “inclusive, innovation-led productivity
growth in the Asia-Pacific,” the APO continues to examine emerging trends and devise methods to
overcome unprecedented challenges by turning them into opportunities. The COVID-19 pandemic,
evolving geopolitical landscape, reversals in globalization trends, and need to address the climate
emergency, among others, have increased the complexity of sustaining productivity growth. For example,
the benefits of digitalization have not yet been fully taken advantage of by most SMEs due to the high cost
of investment required as well as lack of qualified human resources.

The profound socioeconomic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have also raised questions on how to
meet the needs of the changing labor market by addressing skill mismatches, gaps, and shortages.
Meanwhile, global efforts to confront the climate emergency offer opportunities to streamline climate
change solutions, reaping both economic and environmental benefits, through initiatives such as Green
Productivity.

For the APO, the complexity of sustaining productivity growth requires a view through both regional and
national lenses. The region and member economies need to be ahead of the curve in managing emerging
needs for increased and sustained productivity. Continuous exploration of new drivers of productivity is
crucial as they are expected to yield exponential productivity gains.

To guide the APO in meeting these new challenges, Directors are invited to make presentations focusing
on emerging needs for productivity enhancement initiatives in their economies with special emphasis on
human-centric and inclusiveness efforts, the climate emergency, SMEs digitalization, and others.
Elaboration on new drivers of productivity may include innovative productivity tools, techniques, and
methodologies to meet any of the above or other emerging challenges.

Each Director is invited to give a 10-minute presentation, accompanied by PowerPoint slides, on the
second day of the Governing Body Meeting on 25 May 2023. For reference, all members should submit a
full discussion paper of no more than 1,000 words (about 2.5 pages), accompanied by an Executive
Summary of approximately 400 words (about 1 page).

If a Director opts not to make an oral presentation, the printed version submitted will be taken as read, and
a summary of the paper will be included in the proceedings of the meeting.

Please send soft copies of the above documents to the APO Secretariat by Wednesday, 17 May 2023.

Attention: Setsuko Miyakawa, Director, Executive Office, APO Secretariat

e-Mail: CSakaguchi@apo-tokyo.org; and MNakagawa@apo-tokyo.org

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